Mommsen proud of Scots’ fighting spirit

Scotland captain Preston Mommsen was pleased with the way his side fought back against New Zealand in Dunedin on Tuesday, despite going on to lose by three wickets and scoring just 142 runs.

The Kiwi bowlers removed Scotland cheaply, but then made tough work of the chase and lost seven wickets in the process. Mommsen was happy with the way his bowlers continued to fight even in the face of obvious defeat.

Mommsen, who made one run himself, said after the game: "My initial thoughts are very proud of the performance. Proud of the fight back and character we showed in the second half.

"Very disappointed with the first half performance, but Richie [Berrington] and Matthew [Machan] batted beautifully in the middle but unfortunately they couldn't go on to get us a more respectable total.

"But I think the fighting character, that's something that we're proud of, and overall I think we're happy with the performance today."

With Trent Boult taking two wickets, and Corey Anderson three with his medium pace, not to mention spinner Dan Vettori's three, it was a tough ask for the Scots on a deck that swung, as their own bowlers showed too.

Mommsen said: "They were getting a fair bit of movement. We didn't anticipate it to move around that much, but I think they showed they're world class performers. Boult and Southee showed incredible skill and class.

"These guys play a lot of cricket and a lot of red ball cricket as well. So if there's any assistance there, they know exactly how to exploit it and they did exactly that. I think from a batting point of view, it's good we've been exposed to that sort of skill this early in the tournament.

"So it's a massive learning day for us, especially for the top six. Hopefully we can use that to our strength as we look to improve as this tournament goes on."

The skipper was slightly annoyed by being asked about why Scotland were at the event, saying they deserved to be there as they had to work hard to qualify in the first place. He said they just wanted to play good cricket and compete on the world stage.

He added: "From my point of view, I don't feel we have anything to prove here. We're just here to play cricket. We've qualified. We actually have to work harder.

"We have to go through the whole process of playing in a pressurised tournament to win eight games in a row to qualify for a World Cup. So for us being here, it's about playing our cricket and enjoying it, and that is something that's a major focus of this team.

"At the same time, we realise the importance of showing in a good performance for Associate cricket, and hopefully the performance we put on today it gets people talking and shows people that Associates belong at World Cups."