‘They Always Put Up a Good Fight’: Scotland’s Brandon McMullen on Narrow Loss to Australia

Castries [Saint Lucia]: Scotland’s hard-hitting batter Brandon McMullen praised the Australia squad for playing their trademark style of cricket in their last ICC T20 World Cup 2024 match and said they had never doubted Aussie’s intentions.

Despite the loss, McMullen was pleased with Scotland’s hard-contested match against Australia in which the 2021 champions prevailed with five wickets.

Scotland endured heartbreak after narrowly missing out on qualifying for the Super 8 stage. Australia narrowly defeated Scotland by five wickets and helped England advance to the Super Eights. If Scotland had won against Australia, they would have made history by overtaking England and advancing to the Super 8s.

Scotland was on the verge of creating history. Australia’s asking rate was approaching 13 as they entered the final seven overs of their chase after an unimpressive performance up to that point. But Marcus Stoinis, with the support of Travis Head and later Tim David, crushed their aspirations, leaving England breathing a sigh of relief in Antigua, securing their Super Eight position in the T20 World Cup 2024.

The Scotland team fought valiantly, putting their hearts on the line to take on one of the tournament’s top teams. They scored 180 runs, with McMullen leading the way with 60 runs off 34 balls. Scotland also made early gains as Australia struggled at 60 for three.

The 24-year-old batter praised the Australian squad, saying they knew the Aussies would come out firing despite making it to the Super 8s. However, McMullen stated that Scotland is capable of competing with one of the world’s greatest teams.

“Not at all. I think Australia is a world-class cricket team. They have been for many, many years. They’re always going to put out a good fight they’re never just going to walk over and let you win so I’m glad that it was a close game today. We show that we can compete at this high level against the best players in the world and again yet again we showed it tonight that no we’re not far away from beating the best in the world,” McMullen said in a post-match press conference.
McMullen voiced his dismay that Scotland was unable to pass the final barrier.

“Obviously, it’s hugely disappointing as a group we’ve played some real good cricket in this tournament so far and the belief was super high going into today’s game. We had a good start in the first half of the game and the first innings and we just couldn’t quite back it up in the bowling. I thought we bowled well at times. The first half was especially really good. And then you had a few big overs in that back end, which let us down. So unfortunately, it wasn’t our day today, but I learned a lot from the game and the experience was incredible,” he added.