DUNEDIN: Either Afghanistan or Scotland will post their first-ever win in a Cricket World Cup match when they meet in the Pool ‘A’ match on Thursday at the University Oval, unless New Zealand’s fickle weather intervenes.

Afghanistan are playing at their first World Cup, Scotland at their third and for both a win would be a reward for the struggle they have made to take a place at this tournament among the world’s top nations.

No team has faced greater odds than Afghanistan, who have been a member of the International Cricket Council for only 14 years and have a team made up in part by players who learnt the game in refugee camps while in exile from their war-torn homeland.

Afghanistan were competitive against former World Cup winners Sri Lanka in their most-recent match, so will likely start favourites, but did lose to Scotland in their most recent clash in Abu Dhabi.

“We lost that game [but] we learned a lot of things from that game,” Afghanistan batsman Javed Ahmadi said. “They are also one of the ICC associate members and they’re doing good in this tournament, as well, so we try our best.”

Scotland are still searching for a maiden World Cup win at their third appearance, and in their previous game they failed to live up to heightened expectation when they lost heavily against the previously out-of-form England.

However the Scots fancy their chances of a breakthrough victory against Afghanistan, with captain Preston Mommsen saying the team will stick with the strategy that worked in Abu Dhabi and which gave his team a ‘huge psychological advantage’.

“A win would mean a lot to us as a team, to the squad, to the staff and to everyone back home,” Mommsen said. “We’ve gathered a huge amount of support in these first two games. It’s been quite incredible to know that there is so much support for Scottish cricket, particularly here in Dunedin.

“It would be brilliant to give something back and to get that first win. It’s something that Scotland have never done, and tomorrow presents a brilliant opportunity to actually go out and achieve that.”

Teams (from):

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.

AFGHANISTAN: Mohammad Nabi (captain), Afsar Zazai, Usman Ghani, Aftab Alam, Asghar Stanikzai, Dawlat Zadran, Gulbadin Naib, Hamid Hasan, Javed Ahmadi, Najibullah Zadran, Mirwais Ashraf, Nasir Jamal, Nawroz Mangal, Shapoor Zadran, Samiullah Shenwari.

Umpires: Simon Fry (Australia) and Ruchira Palliyaguruge (Sri Lanka).

TV umpire: Chris Gaffaney (New Zealand).

Match referee: David Boon (Australia).

Published in Dawn February 26th , 2015

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