CHRISTCHURCH: Under-fire England have fuelled Scotland’s self-belief going into their crucial World Cup Pool ‘A’ showdown at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Monday.

At any other time the outcome would be a foregone conclusion with England expected to cruise to victory without pressure.

But for England these are not ordinary times. They have come into the World Cup with a battle plan that is not working and key players struggling for form.

After a 111-run thrashing by Australia in their Cup opener, they were even more out of their depth on Friday when New Zealand whipped them by eight wickets.

Two games, two losses and a humiliated England — now under pressure to avoid falling to a low-ranked side such as Scotland — are searching for answers while the Scots are talking up their chances of an historic win.

Scotland fared considerably better against New Zealand when they scored 142 and it took the tournament co-hosts 25 overs and the loss of seven wickets to secure victory.

By comparison, England’s 123 was mown down in 12.2 overs for the loss of only two wickets.

“England don’t look as if they’ll get out of the group at this stage,” was the blunt assessment of former England captain Paul Collingwood who has switched loyalties to Scotland since joining their coaching staff.

Teams (from):

ENGLAND: Moeen Ali, Ian Bell, Gary Ballance, Joe Root, James Taylor, Eoin Morgan (captain), Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, James Tredwell, Ravi Bopara, Steven Finn, Alex Hales.

SCOTLAND: Preston Mommsen (captain), Kyle Coetzer, Richie Berrington, Freddie Coleman, Matthew Cross, Josh Davey, Alisdair Evans, Hamish Gardiner, Majid Haq, Michael Leask, Matt Machan, Calum MacLeod, Safyaan Sharif, Rob Taylor, Iain Wardlaw.

Umpires: Rod Tucker (Australia) and Sundaram Ravi (India).

TV umpire: Marius Erasmus (South Africa).

Match referee: David Boon (Australia).

Published in Dawn February 23rd , 2015

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