After two games against the hosts it is time for England to face their neighbour.
In the match between England and Scotland, the teams will not be fighting each other, instead the two teams will be fighting separate battles. England will be fighting the battle of survival tomorrow. England have lost two out of two and and that too humiliating defeats. Another defeat would push them closer to the world cup exit and a defeat at the hands of an associate will deepen their scar. Scotland's battle will be of their establishment at the world stage. They can draw inspiration from the way Ireland, Afghanistan and UAE have competed so far. As seen in case UAE against Zimbabwe and Afghanistan against Sri Lanka, they do not need to always win the contest, they have to compete. They would have a lot of things to learn from these experiences.
It is always difficult to compare a test nation and an associate. Now that these two teams have played against New Zealand, let us consider that as frame of reference and try to compare.
Both of them batted first. Scotland scored 142 in 36.2 overs, England could score only 123 in 32.3 overs. Scotland 12/4 in 4.2 overs whereas England were 19/1 in 4.2 overs. At the end of mandatory play, Scotland were 22/4 and England were 43/2. There were only 2 ducks in England innings and none were golden, whereas for Scotland there were 5 ducks in total and 4 were golden. Two batsmen, Matt Machan and Richie Berrington scored 50+, with Matt Machan top scoring with 56. The highest score in England innings was 46 by Joe Root. The highest partnership for England batsmen was 47 for 4th wicket between Joe Root and Eoin Morgan, whereas the highest partnership for Scotland batsmen was 97 for 4th wicket between Matt Machan and Richie Berrington for 5th wicket.
Worst spell by Scottish player in that match was from Rob Taylor 4-0-27-0. Worst spell by English player in that match was from Steven Finn 2-0-49-0. Scotland took 7 New Zealand wickets whereas England could take only 2 wickets. New Zealand defeated Scotland with 151 balls remaining and defeated England with 226 balls remaining. Highest score in New Zealand innings against Scotland was 38 by Kane Williamson whereas highest score in New Zealand innings against England was 77 by Brendon McCullum.
All the above statistics suggest that Scotland did fairly well in competing against New Zealand compared to England. When they meet tomorrow, Scotland can draw inspiration from this as well. Scotland has never won a game in their three appearances in the world cup so far. With the form and mental state that currently England is in, Scotland would think that they have a chance to correct that record. Another factor that could come into play would be the fact that former England skipper Paul Collingwood is the coach for Scotland. So he would have a few tricks up his sleeve to deal with England.
Scotland are just one match in this tournament and there is nothing alarmingly wrong they did in their first match. Thus we may not expect any change from what they fielded against New Zeland. Matt Machan and Richie Berrington are in good form and it would be expected of them to provide solidity. In their match against New Zealand all four bowlers Wardlaw, Taylor, Davey and Haq did manage to delay the inevitable and they were even among wickets.
In both their outings, England seemed to have struggled to put the right combination. Steven Finn has been very expensive in both the games that he has played. He could make way for Chris Jordon and Alex Hales may find a place in the team for Gary Ballance. Apart from the combination, they will have to come on the field with the right mindset as well. They will have to forget what has happened and start fresh.
There has been some rain in Christchurch over the last 24-hours, but it is expected to clear by tomorrow and we can expect a full game. As I said in the beginning, who wins between them is not going to be important. It is their individual battle that the two teams are involved is important and they would be interested to see the outcome of that more than anything.
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