OLIVIA BELL: WE ARE CAPABLE OF COMPETING AT T20 WORLD CUP

Scotland head into their third game at the ICC Women's T20 World Cup hoping to upset the odds, as they aim for a maiden victory at their first global event.

 

Scotland, coming off a six-wicket loss to the West Indies, are up against South Africa, who are also looking to recapture their best form following a defeat to England at Sharjah on Monday.

 

Despite back-to-back defeats to open the tournament, Olivia Bell, who has impressed with 1-23 against Bangladesh, and 2-18 against the West Indies, believes Scotland can take confidence from the way they have competed against full-member nations thus far.

 

Bell said: "I think we've taken a lot, we haven't really played at this level before consistently. We've played a couple of full member nations a little bit, but we are playing some of the best players in the world.

 

"I'd say the biggest learning as a team we've taken is that we are capable of competing and staying in games for a long while, taking it pretty deep, so we've been happy with that.

 

"I think knowing how far we've come in the last two years, it's been really reassuring to play and feel really comfortable, really confident and just play with freedom because we know that we are good enough and we're competing really well."

 

 

It doesn't get any easier for the Scots, who face the finalists from last year's event in Dubai on Wednesday.

 

"I think South Africa are capable of being a very strong batting side and have some very kind of explosive players," Bell continued.

 

"Equally, I think having watched the game yesterday, England did bowl pretty well, pretty clinically and I think it looked like they had very clear plans of what they wanted to do, and they did execute them pretty well.

 

"It felt like South Africa maybe didn't manage to combat that as well as they did in the West Indies game. Having watched the games that they've played, we're looking to match what the opposition did well, bowling good areas. England did that very well, so we'll be looking to follow on from that.

 

"But again, I'm sure they'll reflect on that game as well and find some different ways to approach the game."

 

Scotland take on South Africa from 1100 BST on Wednesday 9 October, live on Sky Sports.