Scotland cricket head coach Shane Burger wants his side to finish the job and take top spot in their World Cup League 2 group.
The Scots start their tri-series in Namibia against the hosts tomorrow and know that if they win all four games against the hosts and Nepal, they should secure progress to the next stage of World Cup qualification.
They come off the back of a disappointing T20 World Cup, where defeats against Ireland and Zimbabwe saw them knocked out at the group stage.
But a Scotland squad with some new faces headed to the Southern African nation with ambitions of taking charge of their own destiny.
“We know what we need to do going there. Our goal was to finish top and that hasn’t changed,” he said.
“We know we have to win games of cricket and if we win three or four, that pretty much secures top spot. Then we’ve got a trip to Nepal next year where you’ve got that breathing space, where you can maybe try one or two other things.
“It’ll be nice to do what we need to do and then we’ve got some decisions to make.
“The ball is in our court. We want to end top and we should do that by a considerable margin, if we go and win another eight games of cricket.
“We also have a future to look to and what does the team look like in the years to come. We’re going to keep an eye on that too but more importantly, we want to finish top. We want to win as many games as we can.”
These games form part of a lengthy qualifying system, in what is effectively the semi-final stage of the World Cup qualifiers.
The final qualifier takes place in June and July next year, with hosts Zimbabwe and the Netherlands already confirmed as taking part.
But they could also be joined by full-member ICC nations like South Africa, Ireland and Sri Lanka, who have struggled in recent one-day internationals and may need to qualify.
To add to the intensity, only two countries will advance to the World Cup itself as it remains a 10-team competition.
“It gives us eight more games of cricket and hopefully we can arrange some more games in the summer, so that we’re prepped and ready to go.
“Going into Namibia now, it’s a good chance for us to understand southern hemisphere conditions, as the qualifiers are going to be in Zimbabwe and potentially other parts of Southern Africa.
“It gives this group an opportunity to come to terms with those conditions, so it ticks all the boxes really.
“It’s a very tough qualifier, very cut-throat. The way it is you’ve got to finish in the top two of the qualifier, you’ve got to beat full-member sides, Super League teams that have maybe not done as well as they wanted to.
“It could include teams like South Africa, Ireland and maybe Sri Lanka. There’ll also be the teams that will come with us from World Cricket League 2, like Oman and whoever takes that third spot.
“It’s going to be tough but to get to a 50-over World Cup, you’ve got to get there by beating some of the top teams. That’s what we’re going to try achieve.”
Cricket World Cup League 2 started in 2019 and involves seven teams, who have played numerous tri-series events amongst each other to determine which three teams advance to the qualifier.
Scotland will face the same opponents in the final series in February – they could be through by this stage – and foes are familiar ones by this point.
“You need a bit of a blank slate because you don’t know what the conditions are going to be like out there,” said Burger. “Some guys haven’t been there before and those who have, it was a long time ago.
“You’ve got to contend with the heat, a Namibia team that wants to win every game and a Nepal team who are going to see us as their biggest competition.
“We know the teams pretty well by now and that should fill us with confidence. We know what they’re going to bring and a lot of the strategies they use.
“To balance that out, it’s conditions you’re not familiar with and it’ll be a really good test of where we are right now.”
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