Bristol, June 23 (IANS) New Zealand won the toss and elected to field against Scotland in what is a virtual knockout group game of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup here at the County Ground.

The pressure could hardly be greater as the two sides lock horns in a contest that has all the makings of an early exit. With both sides needing a victory to keep their Women’s T20 World Cup dreams alive, there is little room for error from here on. A defeat would spell the end of the road for either team, adding extra significance to every passage of play.

While New Zealand entered the tournament as defending champions and one of the favourites, their campaign has never truly gathered momentum. Consecutive defeats after posting competitive totals left them with plenty of ground to make up, and even their first win of the tournament came only after surviving a late scare against Ireland.

Questions remain over both departments: the batting has lacked a defining innings, while the bowling unit has struggled to make regular breakthroughs, leaving them with the fewest wickets among all teams in the competition.

Scotland, meanwhile, have shown enough to suggest they are capable of causing problems. After opening their account against Ireland, they pushed the West Indies deep before falling narrowly short and were tested by England in their last outing. Their top-order has consistently offered resistance, though sharper work in the field will be essential if they are to challenge a side desperate to stay in contention.

Interestingly, these teams have never faced each other in this format before. Rankings may favour New Zealand, but with survival at stake, reputations count for little in what promises to be a high-pressure encounter.

Winning the toss, New Zealand skipper Amelia Kerr said, “We don’t really have a reason to bowl, but apart from, yeah, it being a morning game, sometimes in England it does a little bit more earlier and also we know that run rate’s gonna potentially play a part in our campaign, and I think the best way to do that is try keep them to a low total and then try chase it down quickly. I think we were better and it was nice to get a win and it was pleasing, I guess, how we turned it around in the field. There were some crucial moments there in the field that I think also won us the game. But I think with this group, I think someone’s got to step up with the bat and click on and if you get a start, make it a big one. Yeah, fresh start, change of venue. I think one is we work really hard on our fielding. Craig McMillan leads us so well in the fielding front and he really challenges us as well. So you see us in trainings and we’re taking catches and doing some pretty spectacular things. And unfortunately, we just had a couple of bad days. Soph (Sophie Devine) comes back into the side and Georgia Plimmer misses out and Rocco’s (Mair) got a minor rib injury, so Lea Tahuhu comes in.”

Meanwhile, Scotland captain Kathryn Bryce said, “I think we’ve been really good at setting totals in the recent period, so yeah, looking forward to getting in there and having a bat. Yeah, absolutely. I think we’ve played some really good cricket against some good opposition in the last couple of games and just a couple of periods that have probably let us down a little bit. So I think we’re trending in a really good direction and playing cricket that I think is good enough to win games. I think it’s in those periods where you just drop a little bit for them not to be really bad periods and then just kind of limit the damage through that and then know that you will come back through and kind of build again. It will be Lister and Rachel Slater come back in.”

Playing XIs:

New Zealand: Isabella Gaze (wk), Izzy Sharp, Amelia Kerr (c), Sophie Devine, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Suzie Bates, Jess Kerr, Nensi Patel, Lea Tahuhu, Bree Illing

Scotland: Darcey Carter, Katherine Fraser, Kathryn Bryce (c), Ailsa Lister, Sarah Bryce (wk), Megan McColl, Pippa Sproul, Priyanaz Chatterji, Kirstie Gordon, Rachel Slater, Hannah Rainey

–IANS

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