Scotland up for fight against England

Feb 22, 2015 - 5:07 AM With England at a low ebb after two big losses, Scotland's cricketers may never get a better chance to beat their neighbours than in Monday's World Cup pool match.

While the Scots have never beaten England in three ODI encounters, the ICC associate members have been more competitive than their Test-playing rivals so far at the World Cup.

Scotland's three-wicket loss to New Zealand was a much closer encounter than England's eight-wicket drubbing by the same opponents.

England are under huge pressure to beat the Scots convincingly in Christchurch after being trounced by both Australia and New Zealand.

Scotland captain Preston Mommsen says it is a good time to be playing England.

"We are up for this game: we have got a very passionate 15 players there who will fight tooth and nail for every run and try and save every run in the field as well," he said.

"We'll be fighting for it ... we want to win this game and we want to put in a huge performance."

Mommsen said he couldn't put into words what a win might do for Scotland, who only severed their cricketing ties with England in 1992.

"We are not meant to beat full members but we know we have the potential to do it and hopefully we can do it tomorrow," he said.

Mommsen also bemoaned the lack of cricket Scotland gets against full member nations.

Despite being neighbours, England and Scotland only play every other year.

"On the face of it, you wouldn't say that is enough, one fixture every two years," he said.

"Whether or not that's down to England cricket, I'm not so sure."

He also questioned whether it was acceptable that Ireland, who beat England at the 2011 World Cup and the West Indies last week, had only earned nine matches against full member sides since then.

Source: AAP