Contrary to an erroneous snippet of trivia on the official website of the 2015 ICC World Cup, Scotland’s fast bowler Iain Wardlaw has never climbed Mount Everest. For now, a first victory in their third appearance at the tournament represents the summit for Wardlaw and his team-mates.
England in Christchurch on Sunday night, looking more Ben Nevis than the Eiger’s North Face after Eoin Morgan’s team’s harrowing loss to New Zealand on Friday, is the 10th opportunity to make history. Before their second Pool A fixture, the message from Scotland’s assistant coach Paul Collingwood, seen muscularly patrolling the boundary rope in a sleeveless T-shirt during their three-wicket defeat by the co-hosts in Dunedin on Tuesday, could not be simpler: their opponents are the team under pressure.
Not that his old team truly know the meaning of the word, insists Collingwood, who was part of the management team when the captain Preston Mommsen’s 78 helped successfully chase 261 against Kenya in the World Cup qualifier early last year, sealing their place in the main event. That tense finale at Hagley Oval, the venue for this encounter, opened the former England all-rounder’s eyes to the make-or-break nature of cricket at associate level.
“You take it for granted as an England player – you’re always at the big tournaments,” he said. “At the qualifying tournament the emotions were incredible. [The Scottish team] were literally playing for their jobs. With consequences like that you understand what real pressure is. In a way the pressure is off once you’ve reached the finals.”
Cricket Scotland, whose £2.1m annual revenue is one-60th that of the England and Wales Board, employs nine players on central contracts, the highest of which is worth £30,000 a year – a far cry from the six-figure sums their opposite numbers pocket. But with six county cricketers and 68,000 active participants back home, along with 2,000 coaches, the Scots draw from a wider talent pool than Ireland.
And yet unlike their fellow associates, who have embarrassed Pakistan, England and West Indies in successive World Cups, for Scotland that breakthrough maiden victory remains elusive. “It is a hurdle for us,” Collingwood told the BBC’s Test Match Special. “The players know they are close and getting closer. They can handle pace and spin and they can be one of the best fielding sides in the tournament.”
That analysis will raise eyebrows from those who watched Scotland subside to 12 for four in their opener with New Zealand before a stand of 97 in 23.3 overs between the centrally contracted Richie Berrington and the Sussex left-hander Matt Machan steered the side to 142 all out. The Kiwis, in the hunt for a quick kill, ended seven down as Wardlaw and his fellow seamer Josh Davey claimed three wickets apiece.
Machan’s role in the recovery, a calmly constructed 79-ball 56, came as no surprise to his county coach Mark Robinson, who believes the 24-year-old’s international career – courtesy of a 2012 change in criteria that allowed the Brighton-born batsman to be selected by virtue of his Scottish mother – is helping to fully round a promising young talent.
“Playing for Scotland has done him a lot of good,” Robinson said. “He had an outstanding breakthrough season for Sussex in 2013 but hadn’t quite got his identity in a strong team. Becoming a leading player for Scotland, and the responsibility that comes with that, has given him self-worth. He’s a very destructive and counterattacking player at his best – a born striker of the ball.”
Scotland will hope Machan’s arrival at the crease against England comes with a sturdier foundation – a base camp, if you will – than that in their last outing.
