Taylor ready for Kiwis opener

Leicestershire CCC all-rounder Rob Taylor speaks about the excitement of Scotland's World Cup opener in his latest blog for All Out Cricket.

With our first group game against New Zealand in Dunedin due to get underway tonight (10pm, UK time) it’s fair to say that the whole squad are excited and as well prepared as we can be. Naturally there will be a few nerves, but who can blame us? We are about to begin a campaign in the biggest cricket tournament in the world, but we are very much taking one day at a time for the next four weeks.

Our preparation for the tournament couldn’t have been better. We had 10 days in Sydney – playing club side St George’s, our first run-out in Australia, a game which saw us record a good win – and it really has to be up there as one of the best cities in the world.

It probably helps that the weather is good and you get one of the most iconic views across the harbour towards the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. But this is, of course, no way a holiday (except perhaps for our media man, who I think has been taking it easy…) and before we could focus on the New Zealand match, we had two important warm-up games.

The first was against Ireland, who we seem to have played a lot recently. With the new ICC ruling allowing Ireland and Afghanistan into the top tier of ODI cricket this was an important game for us and a chance to prove why we feel we should have a spot in that top tier too.

We played excellent cricket and having posted 286-6 thanks to 103 from Matt Machan, we bowled Ireland out for 117 under the lights. The self-proclaimed A-train (Ali Evans) took 4-17 in a great spell of bowling that did most of the damage for us.

With the good win against Ireland behind us and a day off it was time for me to lose on the golf course. We were kindly hosted at Castle Hills Country Club and a handful of us went to play. It would have been nice if myself and my playing partner (Michael Leask) had put the ball in play off the tee once or twice, but we didn’t do it enough: my current tour golf record is played two, lost two.

After Ireland we had the prospect of facing West Indies at Sydney. There aren’t many more well-known grounds than The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) – Lord’s is up there, of course, but not many others – so the opportunity to play a warm-up game there against the West Indies was great for us. Again, it was another chance to show ourselves and others that we can compete at the top level and that’s exactly what we did. We were by no means perfect but we pushed the men from the Caribbean as close as we could.

Bowling first, we removed Gayle cheaply, as the West Indies posted 313-9 in their 50 with the ‘A-train’ taking 3-63. In reply Kyle Coetzer made an excellent 96, only to be dismissed by an excellent catch on the boundary by Andre Russell. Richie Berrington (pictured top) then took control of the game, smashing 66 off 44 balls, and it looked as if he was leading our charge towards an excellent win. However, a couple of run-outs put a slight stall to our innings and we finished four runs short. It felt again like we had let another game against a full member slip, just as we had against New Zealand last year, but there were so many positives to take from the game.

With everything done in Sydney, our preparation was complete and we headed off to New Zealand for the run in to our first group game. A short flight over the pond was followed by a long bus ride through the South Island. But before that we got a bit of time in the lads’ favourite place, Queenstown. Queenstown played a big part in our qualifying campaign last year and we played five out of our six group games there, only losing once. It was the start of what turned out to be a very successful month for us. With little time to spend there because the bus driver had to be home by 10.30pm, everyone split up to go and relive their favourite spots of Queenstown. I went straight to Ferg Burger! The best burgers in the world.

Dunedin feels a lot like Edinburgh – after all it is the Edinburgh of the south – and there is a very Scottish feel about the place. There are Saltires hanging from windows, Scottish whisky bars and of course the statue of Robert Burns standing in the Octagon, it is great that our first game is to be played here.

We had an official welcoming to the city from the mayor, with the help of a Haka group, and there were some 300 people gathered outside for us. It was great to be welcomed, not just by dignitaries but also by the people of Dunedin, and with just one day before our first game here, the lads feel right at home.

Rob wrote this blog for All Out Cricket. Play All Out Cricket's World Cup Fantasy Game, sponsored by Barrington Sports: http://www.alloutcricket.com/cricket/fantasy