The former Lomond School pupil played in all four of Scotland’s matches as the team came agonisingly close to reaching the last four.

Scotland were placed in a group with Australia, Malaysia, Wales and England, with the top two qualifying for the semi finals and, as expected, Australia comfortably won the group.

Scotland opened their campaign with a 2-0 victory against Malaysia with Skrastin starting the match and impressing in midfield.

The hosts won a number of penalty corners and it was Ailsa Wyllie who made the most of Scotland’s domination to smash home the game’s opening goal to give the home side a 1-0 half time lead.

Wyllie doubled Scotland’s lead in the second half to secure the three points and speaking after the match a delighted Skrastin said: “It was the perfect start and just what we wanted.

“The first game was one of the games we were targeting so it was a great result.” However, it was a different story against the on form Australians who went into the match on the back of a 4-0 win against Malaysia and a 9-0 victory over Wales.

The visitors from Down Under repeated the 9-0 scoreline against Skrastin’s Scotland team on Sunday and head coach, Gordon Shepherd admitted the team didn’t find their usual high standards against the tournament favourites.

He said: “It was not one of our best performances, we didn’t really get started in the game against a team as good as Australia and we got punished because of it.

“At corners they were lethal but it’s disappointing from us that we gave so many of them away.” The Scotland team then bounced back with a 2-0 victory on Monday against Wales, which put them level on points with England, ahead of a deciding tie against the team from south of the border, on Wednesday morning.

As the Scotland and England teams took to the pitch the stakes could not have been higher with a semi final place up for grabs.

Skrastin again played a key role, however, she was unable to help the team avoid a narrow 2-1 defeat.

England powered into a 2-0 lead but despite creating a host of chances and winning a number of penalty corners, Scotland were only able to pull one goal back.

After falling just short of the aim of a semi final finish, head coach Gordon Shepherd was left proud of his team’s efforts and he was particularly impressed with Skrastin.

He said: “Nicki is one of the youngest members of the team and she has progressed massively over the last couple of years. “She has a massive engine on her, she never gives up and she put in very good, solid performances.” Despite Skrastin’s Commonwealth Games adventure coming to an end, she explained from the minute Glasgow 2014 kicked off, at the opening ceremony, she has had a memorable time.

She added: “The opening ceremony was phenomenal — I don’t know how to describe it other than probably the best night of my life.

“It was just nuts and was over in a flash but I have got about 1,000 photos on my phone which make no sense but it was just great — the atmosphere was brilliant.

“The whole team had a great time at the ceremony, we loved the outfits and I think we rocked them when we walked in.

“It has been great to have so many fans as it is not really what we are used to but the crowds have been brilliant.”