The New Zealand Under 19 Cricket team are just one day away from playing their first match of the ICC 2012 U19 Cricket World Cup.
After an extensive build up, the squad of 15 players will face their Scottish counterparts at John Blanck Oval on the Sunshine Coast.
Located in Group B, New Zealand will be hopeful of beginning their campaign with a bang against opposition that they are favoured to beat.
They will however still be wary of Scotland, who were impressive during patches in the lead in to the tournament. With just three pool games available to help them advance, it’s crucial that New Zealand find their focus from the outset.
However there is good reason that the Kiwis go into the match as favourites. In three of four warm-up matches played in the last week New Zealand have been victorious and one of those was by a comprehensive 116 runs against the Scots.
It was an encouraging display from the team and one which would have pleased co-coaches Paul Wiseman and Matt Horne. Combine that performance with their wins against the West Indies and Nepal and signs are looking positive for the boys.
“It’s great to get a couple of wins under the belt, which should help the boys go into the group stages with a bit of confidence,” said Wiseman.
“We’ve learnt a lot already from our matches, but still have a long way to go to achieve what we have set out to do.
“If we keep putting the effort in hopefully we can do something pretty special over here.”
For now their focus will be on overcoming their first hurdle in Scotland. Lead by captain Will Young, you can be confident the boys will give it their all come the first ball.
Following tomorrow’s match the team then face Afghanistan Tuesday and Pakistan on Thursday. They need to finish in the top two to advance to the next stage.
Play starts 9:30 local time (11:30 NZ time).
