Beach-combing Scots back themselves against Bangladesh

Thursday, 5 March 2015 02:47 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Scotland spent two days cruising New Zealand coasts to escape cricket after their hopes of a maiden World Cup win were crushed by Afghanistan but have returned determined to break their duck against Bangladesh. The Scots needed just one wicket in the Dunedin cliffhanger but Afghanistan’s tail-enders reeled in the final 19 runs to condemn their opponents to an 11th straight loss at World Cups.

The brave defeat was of little comfort to captain Preston Mommsen and his men, who packed their gear up and hit the road as Afghans danced on the streets of Kabul to celebrate the team’s first win at their maiden tournament. “That Afghanistan game was very difficult to get over,” Mommsen told reporters on Wednesday, a day before their Bangladesh clash in Nelson. “To lose that game was very disappointing for all the 15 players, but we’ve had a good couple of days’ break, clean break from cricket. “Some of the boys have gone up north, seen some of the beautiful beaches in Nelson and just taken their minds off cricket, came back to training yesterday nice and refreshed, and the boys are ready to go for tomorrow.” Bangladesh will be the non-test playing nation’s biggest chance of a long-awaited win, with tough matches against Sri Lanka and Australia to close their pool round. With that in mind, they have left no stone unturned and hired former Bangladesh coach Shane Jurgensen as a consultant to help prepare. A former first class cricketer for Sheffield Shield side Queensland, the 38-year-old Australian will stay with Scotland for just the one match before returning to his regular coaching gig in Fiji. “It’s been good to have Shane on board with the team. He obviously knows all the Bangladeshi players,” Mommsen said. “He’s fully aware of the way that they like to play and the things they do and don’t like on the field. “He’s added some very valuable information and insight into the Bangladeshi team, and we’ll be using that hopefully to our strength tomorrow.” Scotland could do with a hand, having lost all their three matches to Bangladesh, though the last was nearly a decade ago. Fellow associate member side Ireland upset West Indies in Nelson early in the tournament and Mommsen said they would take inspiration from that. “They were very aggressive in the way they took on the West Indies’ bowling attack, and we’ll try and represent the associates tomorrow as best we can,” he said.