Corey Anderson (in pic), star of New Zealand’s 98-run victory over Sri lanka in the first match of the World Cup, called the Black Caps a “juggernaut” and expressed they won’t take Scotland easily when the two sides meet on Tuesday in Dunedin. Speaking after the win, Anderson said, “We’ve got Scotland now, and obviously they gave us a decent run for our money when we had a warm-up game, so we’re not taking them lightly either.”
The left-handed batsman is referring to Scotland’s narrow one-run loss to New Zealand XI at Bert Sutcliffe Oval at lincoln last year as part of the preparations for associate members of the ICC. While that side missed the heavy-weights in Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Tim Southee and Daniel Vettori, but for a side that aspires to win its first World Cup and has bulldozed past teams in the last 18-months, it was a nervy finish.
Anderson, who scored 75 runs against Sri lanka and picked up two wickets, further added, “It’s a World Cup. You have to treat every game the same. It’s obviously a cliché. “But we probably got put in our place a little bit in lincoln when they did give us a run. They showed us they have players who can play and bowlers who can bowl. We’ll have to be pretty switched on.”
Anderson attributed the key for his side would be to start strongly. “We don’t want to be two or three down early on otherwise we’ll be chasing our tails. We’ll treat them as they are a good side and go about our way.”
Scotland despite their associate member status aren’t going to go down easy as they showed in the warm-up matches in Sydney. In the first, the Scots pummeled Ireland by 179 runs and in the second lost by a small margin of 3-runs to West Indies despite chasing a mammoth 314 runs. Scotland have appeared in the World Cup finals on two occasions — 1999 and 2007 — and went out in group stages in both tournaments without a win.
like most minnows, Scotland aim to topple a bigwig and New Zealand, riding high on confidence and considered as strong favourites to win the event come March 29, will certainly be a massive scalp to start with. Batsman Richie Berrington certainly aims to do so. “Our first goal is to try to turn over one of the full member teams,” he said.
“We’ve got five opportunities to do that. That’s the first aim and we’ll take it from there.” The name Dundedin, venue for the match, has its origins from Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, capital of Scotland and has a sizable number of expats living in the city. Alongside, fans from Scotland are expected to fly in to make it an even atmosphere of support.
“I believe there are a few Scots out there. We’ve also got a few people coming out to watch us (from Scotland) so we’re quite excited about what’s coming up,” Berrington added. Despite Scotland’s narrow loss last year, New Zealand are on a high at the moment and with stature of World Cup involved, it certainly is a battle of David and Goliath .