Scotland put Irish spin on Bangladesh challenge

NELSON, New Zealand: Scotland have drawn inspiration from Ireland as they prepare to face an expected spin-stacked Bangladesh on Thursday in their last realistic chance for points in the World Cup.
Although Scotland lost a golden opportunity to get points on the board when they caved in against Afghanistan last week, captain Preston Mommsen believes his side could surprise the higher-ranked Bangladeshis.
Bangladesh are fired up by the notion they are only two wins away from a quarter-final berth and have targeted Scotland and England to get there.
However, Mommsen warned the Bangladeshis against getting too far ahead of themselves.
“They’re expected to win this game. They want to get two points out of this game,” he said.
“But at the same time we know it’s a brilliant opportunity for Scotland as an associate team to play against a full member and have the opportunity to beat a full member. We are right up for this game.”
The Pool A encounter is being played at Saxton Oval in Nelson where Ireland earned pin-up status among the associate teams after producing the first boilover of the World Cup when they beat the West Indies.
“We do take inspiration from the way they performed here against the West Indies. I think they were very aggressive in the way they took on the West Indies’ bowling attack, and we’ll try and represent the associates as best we can,” Mommsen said.
The Scotland squad took a clean two-day break from cricket following their loss to Afghanistan and Mommsen believed they were refreshed and ready to face an expected Bangladesh spin assault.
“We are expecting a full spin attack from the Bangladeshis or we’re preparing for that at least,” he said.
“If we can get to that 40th over with wickets in hand, hopefully we can expose some weaknesses in their death bowling and hopefully get a good total by playing good cricket in that way.”
Ahead of the World Cup, Scotland attended a training camp in Dubai where the main focus was batting against spin and their final practice in Nelson was heavily centred on playing left-arm spin.
Mommsen said the Scotland batsmen needed to maintain their composure against “some very good spinners in the Bangladeshi lineup”.
“So it’s important that we get that partnership going, and as I said, we go into those last 10-15 overs with wickets in hand.” After Bangladesh, Scotland’s remaining pool games are against Australia and Sri Lanka.