New Zealand on guard against upbeat Scotland

Moments before Preston Mommsen walked in for his final interaction with the media before Scotland's World Cup opener against New Zealand at University Oval on Tuesday, the sound of Scottish bagpipes could be heard coming from one of the adjacent playing fields on the campus of the University of Otago. It must have been part of the university band's practice routines for orientation week - the campus is starting to get active with new arrivals and their parents, as well as returning students - but the sounds of bagpipes was another reminder of where Mommsen's Scotland team are based: Dunedin, known as the Edinburgh of the South, and indeed planned in light of its Scottish predecessor.

Game six of the World Cup pits Scotland against New Zealand, who hammered Sri Lanka by 98 runs in the tournament opener in Christchurch, but Mommsen will be hoping that a bit of Dunedin's Scottish heritage rubs off and motivates his Associates-level team against the in-form home team.

Mommsen was born in South Africa, but today proudly leads Scotland into their third World Cup - after winless runs in 1999 and 2007 - and was confident of the way the team has entered the tournament. "I think we have quite a dynamic side," he said. "Obviously inexperienced in terms of playing on the world stage, but at the same time, I think we can use that to our advantage. Very raw team, so there will be a huge amount of energy there, a huge amount of passion, and the boys will be playing very hard."

Scotland's two warm-ups in Australia resulted in a 179-run win over Ireland and a three-run defeat to West Indies when they were chasing 313, but they will also take a bit of confidence from a practice game against a New Zealand XI featuring Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum, Corey Anderson, Luke Ronchi, Daniel Vettori, Mitchell McClenaghan and Kyle Mills in Lincoln, last October.

"We watched a video this morning of that game, and we took a huge amount from that game. We took them very close, and really we should have won that game," said Mommsen. "A lot of the guys playing tomorrow played in that game, so we've got that to call upon, and hopefully we can produce a similar performance tomorrow and take the game deep. The buildup has been near perfect for the boys. We're very realistic about the opposition that we're up against. Obviously, New Zealand are a quality team, and the form they are currently in, they're going to be a difficult team to break down. But at the same time, we've prepared as we have for every other game in the leadup to this game tomorrow, and hopefully we can put in a good performance."

Brendon McCullum was part of that game a few months ago, and he too spoke of the team sitting down to watch the video of it. "Yeah, we did some scouting this morning on the bowlers. I've had plenty of footage the last little while that we can get our hands on and I've obviously tried to cover that, as well," he said. :That's one of our big things as a team, that we make sure we go in well planned and well prepared, but they gave us a good run for our money at Lincoln a few months ago. Yeah, we've got to make sure we're on our game and treat it as if we're playing one of the bigger teams, as well, because in this World Cup, I think we've seen at the moment with West Indies under a little bit of pressure, as well, that the Associate teams certainly have players capable of standing up and making things pretty uncomfortable for you."

New Zealand have been a dominant team over the last 15-odd months, winning big series home and away, and this World Cup is being talked of in certain circles as their best shot at victory. Fully aware of the level of competition Scotland are up against, Mommsen sounded confident when assessing his team.

"I don't think we're daunted by the way they play. Obviously, the focus has very much been on the way we want to play our game tomorrow," he said. "At the same time, we know they're dangerous. It's a dangerous lineup from 1 to 11. At the same time, they're still human beings, they still can nick the ball and get caught at slip. We have to put the balls in the right areas and make sure we're able to contain them. Obviously, we can draw on that experience of coming up against West Indies, a very dangerous batting lineup with Chris Gayle, Darren Sammy, Andre Russell towards the deaths, so that was good experience and very recent for us, and we'll call upon that. We're going into this game tomorrow with a huge amount of confidence."

The wicket at University Oval looks a good batting surface, but as both captains said, the angles on a small ground are what could be the deciding factor. While Mommsen felt Scotland would have to play 'smart cricket' on this ground, McCullum harked back to two ODIs played here in January with Sri Lanka, in which New Zealand made 360 and 315.

"Obviously, Australia is a different kettle of fish in terms of their size grounds and things like that, but I think our grounds are really, really good," he said. "They've got some quirks about them, and this one, as well, with the boundaries straight, obviously a little bit shorter, but there's certainly some getout areas, as well, for bowlers with the big boundaries, but I think the pitch looks really good. I'd expect a lot of runs, especially if we get, I guess, some clear skies over here, which I believe is forecast, then I'd expect a lot of runs, I guess, similar to the games we had against Sri Lanka down here."

Hamish Gardiner, who batted at No 3 in the warm-ups and made 12 and 7, could be swapped with Freddie Coleman who batted at one-drop in the UAE last month. The bowling is unlikely to change much from those fixtures, with Scotland heavily dependent on the offspin of 31-year-old Majid Haq - only the second player from the country to cross 200 caps - and medium-pacer Alasdair Evans, with seven wickets in the warm-ups. They will, as Mommsen pointed out, expect a lot from their new-ball pair of Ian Wardlaw and Josh Davey, who earlier this year took ten wickets between them to rout Afghanistan for just 63.

There have been suggestions that New Zealand could make changes for this match, but McCullum dodged that question by saying: "We're going to play our cards pretty close to our chest with the team, but all the guys are fit and available, and it's a good space for us to be in. We've got a fully fit and strong team to pick from, so we'll just work out the strategy that we want to go in with tomorrow."

Probable XIs

New Zealand: 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Brendon McCullum (capt), 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Grant Elliott, 6 Corey Anderson, 7 Luke Ronchi (wk), 8 Daniel Vettori, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Trent Boult, 11 Adam Milne/Mitchell McClenaghan

Scotland: 1 Kyle Coetzer, 2 Callum MacLeod, 3 Hamish Gardiner/Freddie Coleman, 4 Matt Machan, 5 Preston Mommsen (capt), 6 Richie Barrington, 7 Matthew Cross (wk), 8 Josh Davey, 9 Alasdair Evans, 10 Majid Haq, 11 Ian Wardlaw

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