Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 – Scotland’s Darcey Carter hopes for more cricket after threatening upsets

If someone had told Darcey Carter a couple of weeks ago that she would be the leading run-scorer at some point in the Women’s T20 World Cup 2026, would she have believed them? And if someone had told her she had overtaken Smriti Mandhana, one of the game’s finest, on the run charts – albeit having played an innings more – what would her reaction had been? You might be surprised to learn that there was actually a hint of disappointment.

“It’s great to be able to score runs, but at the end of the day, if the team’s not winning, those runs are almost irrelevant for me personally,” Carter said at the post-match press conference after New Zealand beat Scotland by six wickets in Bristol. “Maybe I could do a bit more to help the team get over the line, but it’s good to be in good form.”

Both of Carter’s half-centuries have come in losing causes, as Scotland went down to West Indies by seven runs in Leeds last week, and now to New Zealand. But she kept them in the hunt in matches where the Bryce sisters Kathryn and Sarah, Scotland’s marquee players, did not come off. Carter’s performance has unveiled a depth to Scottish cricket that was not present at their last major tournament appearance.

“I’m quite pleased that I’ve managed to put on some good scores. The last time I was here, I probably didn’t get as many runs as I would have liked at the last World Cup,” she said. “And actually just taking a bit of ownership for this team and trying to put us in the best positions possible is really what matters to me most.”

Carter was part of Scotland’s squad at the 2024 tournament, where they made their T20 World Cup debut. She scored only 19 runs in four innings, and Scotland lost all four matches they played by increasingly large margins. It seemed they were far off the pace of the bigger teams.

But they flipped that narrative as early as the first match in this edition in 2026, when they beat Ireland, in their fifth World Cup game. For context, Ireland have not won any of the 21 matches they have appeared in across five editions, and to say Scotland have sped past them is no understatement. Seeing them in action on the same day confirmed it.

While Ireland were completely outplayed by Sri Lanka, Scotland caused defending champions New Zealand trouble in both powerplays. They also ran West Indies close and put up a good fight with the bat against England, and there are positive signs of their progression.

“Our main goal would probably be to be able to get more cricket in against better ranked teams and get more experience. Then, when we come on the world stage where there’s lots of pressure, we can deal with that a bit better.”

Darcey Carter

“We’re quite proud of how we have held ourselves, and how we’re really giving good competition to these big teams,” Carter said. “There’s probably a bit of disappointment that we’ve maybe not finished the games as well as we would have liked. But to be able to set the games up in that position is probably something we didn’t do when we played last time. So although we’re not getting the results that we may want, the improvement from the past two years is obviously pretty clear.”

In the time since the last T20 World Cup, Scotland have played 25 matches across a quadrangular series in Thailand, the ICC Emerging Trophy in Thailand, a T20 World Cup Qualifier in Nepal, and a home tri-series in the lead-up to the World Cup. They’ve won 17 of those, which suggests a strong winning culture. But considering the only Full Member they played in that time was Bangladesh – twice in the tri-series, including one win – the need to play higher-profile opposition is pressing.

“We don’t play as much cricket as we would like,” Carter said. “Coming into these tournaments, it’s quite difficult to go straight up against the best opposition without much practice against higher-ranked teams. Our main goal would probably be to be able to get more cricket in against better ranked teams and get more experience. Then, when we come on the world stage where there’s lots of pressure, we can deal with that a bit better.”

Scotland have the advantage of all but one of their squad members, Chloe Abel, being active in English domestic cricket, which already gives them experience against higher-profile players. But they are not part of the Women’s Championship, which would be a next step towards professionalism.

“The more cricket you play, the more experience you get, and the better you are in those sorts of [pressure] situations,” Carter said. “We’re still quite a young team. We’ve not all played a lot of international cricket. Some of these teams we’re playing against have obviously got really talented and experienced players.”

Scotland have one more opportunity to secure a win when they play Sri Lanka on Friday.

Source link