Interviews with the captains of Canada and Scotland ahead of the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2004 final

Canada will take on Scotland in the inaugural ICC Intercontinental Cup final at Sharjah from 21-23 November. Ahead of the decisive first-class encounter, both captains provide an insight into their teams' progress and plans.

Canada captain - Ian Billcliff © ICC

Canada captain, Ian Billcliff - "Our players certainly have the ability, if we can apply ourselves then we will be competitive."

We got the runs on the board and then we were able to apply pressure, so in that regard things did go to plan and obviously we made it to the final. However there were periods where things didn't go quite the way we wanted them to and the team had to fight hard to keep control of the match.

I think the key to our success was our ability to build batting and bowling partnerships better than the opposition.

The partnership between Zubin Surkari and Don Maxwell was absolutely vital and enabled us to apply pressure with runs on the board. Sunil Dhaniram, Umar Bhatti and Austin Codrington all bowled well which helped build the pressure and lead to wickets at crucial times.

We don't know too much about the Scotland team and their individual players but there's a lot that we can build on from the first game and still some areas in which we can improve.

I think it will come down to application. Our players certainly have the ability if we can apply ourselves then we will be competitive.

Playing in this tournament has been great for our players, we have learnt a lot from the semi-final so development-wise to build on the semi-final win is a priority. Winning would give important publicity to the sport in Canada and develop interest in the Canadian team.

Scotland captain - Craig Wright © Cricket Scotland

Scotland captain, Craig Wright - "Everyone in the team contributed to the win."

Yes, the game went absolutely to plan. We managed to win the toss and got full batting points, only loosing five wickets along the way. Our bowlers then won us the game with a great display to bowl Kenya out for less than a hundred. That allowed us to have some batting and bowling practice in the second innings which should help us in the final.

We had a bit more firepower in the bowling department and I think it was important that in batting we were able to establish good partnerships in both innings.

The good thing from our point of view was that everyone in the team contributed to the win. Obviously, Fraser Watts's 146 gave us the platform and Paul Hoffmann put us in the driving seat with his great spell of 5 for 5. Kyle Coetzer's 133 not out in the second innings was also a highlight, along with Colin Smith's 93.

We have played the Canadians a few times and know the majority of their players. That said, we won't worry too much about the opposition and we will be focusing on our own performance.

We have a good all-round team with depth to our batting and a large number of bowling options. We have strength in both departments and if we perform to our abilities we have a good chance in the final.

It is important for us to do well in all ICC tournaments as we have ambitions and want to achieve One-Day International status. We are aiming to prove we are consistently the best Associate Member country and any elevated status would give cricket a massive boost in Scotland.

Daily updates and full scorecards are available on the official tournament website www.icc-intercontinentalcup.com