Off the field, in the Scotland dressing-room, Kyle Coetzer and company were picking Virat Kohli’s brain. Cricket Scotland expressed their gratitude towards the Indian captain, tweeting pictures of Kohli’s interaction with Scotland players with a caption: “Huge respect to @imVkohli and co. for taking the time”.

Coetzer, the Scotland captain, didn’t want to miss this opportunity. Last week, during an interaction with this paper, he had spoken about his wish to invite Kohli to the Scotland dressing-room after the match.

Huge respect to @imVkohli and co. for taking the time 🤜🤛 pic.twitter.com/kdFygnQcqj

— Cricket Scotland (@CricketScotland) November 5, 2021

“That game is going to be the biggest (for us at the T20 World Cup), if not the biggest that Scotland has ever played. Standing next to Virat at the toss will be a special occasion to anyone, not just myself. He is an idol of the game, a stylish man the way he scores his runs,” he had said.

In terms of progress, Scotland have fallen by the wayside. Their cricket is 225 years old, but countries like Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Ireland have marched ahead.

Cake, laughs and a win! 🎂 😂 👏#TeamIndia bring in captain @imVkohli‘s birthday after their superb victory in Dubai. 👍 👍 #T20WorldCup #INDvSCO pic.twitter.com/6ILrxbzPQP

— BCCI (@BCCI) November 5, 2021

Scotland will return with a lot of positives from the T20 World Cup though. They beat Bangladesh, qualified for the Super 12 and gave New Zealand a mighty scare. But almost all their players are still semi-professionals, including the 12 centrally contracted cricketers.

“Playing in tournaments like this helps us a lot, but that’s only for a short period of time. We have to find some sponsors. We have had some excellent journeys from like Afghanistan and Ireland. Scotland are on that journey now. And we need to find somebody who wants to be on that journey with us,” Coetzer had said.

Jadeja’s ‘basic plan’

Meanwhile, after dishing out a Man-of-the-Match performance, Ravindra Jadeja was asked post-match if his role changed with the team playing three spinners.

“My role was the same. I look to take wickets in middle overs, and whenever I get an opportunity try and bowl like how I used to bowl. Just because we are playing against Scotland we used a simple basic plan,” Jadeja said.

He returned with 3/15 from four overs.