Cricket World Cup 2015: England defeats irrelevant - Ian Bell
England's dismal start to the World Cup will have no bearing on Sunday's match against Scotland in Christchurch, says batsman Ian Bell.
England are bottom of Pool A after a 111-run defeat by Australia and an eight-wicket thrashing by New Zealand.
"Even though what's happened has been so bad, it's irrelevant to what happens when we play Scotland," said Bell.
"It's about how we react. We have to put in a good performance, turn up and play our best cricket."
England have not been beaten in three previous one-day internationals against Scotland, but lost to both Ireland and Bangladesh at the 2011 World Cup.
The opening two defeats have left little margin for error in their remaining group games, but Bell says their next four fixtures provide the opportunity to build momentum towards the quarter-finals.
"If we can play some good cricket in the next four it puts us in a good place going into the next round," said the 32-year-old.
"We want to play an aggressive brand of cricket. We've got the talented players to do it, but it's no good doing it in the nets. We have to take it to the middle."
Scotland have former England one-day captain Paul Collingwood on their coaching staff, though Bell does not believe that will give the Scots an advantage.
"Colly is a good guy and a good coach, he will give them confidence," added the Warwickshire batsman. "But I don't think there's too many secrets nowadays, there's so much footage of everyone."
However, Scotland captain Preston Mommsen said Collingwood has provided a valuable insight into their Test-playing opponents.
"He's got a fair bit of knowledge and he's shared that with the group," said the 27-year-old batsman. "Hopefully that will get us into a good position."
After England's poor start, Mommsen said that this was a good opportunity for Scotland to earn their first win over a Test-playing side and described how a victory would boost Scottish cricket.
"It is a good time to be playing them, be we are focussed on our own game," said Mommsen. "We're not meant to beat full members, but we know we have the potential to do it.
"I don't think I could put into words what a win would do for this team and for Scottish cricket.
"We've yet to beat a full-member team and that is a major goal. We know that we're not far away and our form in the last 12 months has proved that."
Scotland lost to New Zealand by three wickets and West Indies by three runs in their matches to date.
The top four sides from each group will qualify for the quarter-finals.
Line-ups
England (from): Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Gary Ballance, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler (wkt), Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Joe Root, James Taylor, James Tredwell, Chris Woakes.
Scotland (from): Preston Mommsen (capt), Kyle Coetzer, Richie Berrington, Freddie Coleman, Matthew Cross, Josh Davey, Alisdair Evans, Hamish Gardiner, Majid Haq, Michael Leask, Matt Machan, Calum MacLeod, Safyaan Sharif, Rob Taylor, Iain Wardlaw.
Umpires: Rod Tucker (Australia), S. Ravi (India)
TV umpire: Marius Erasmus (South Africa)
Match referee: David Boon (Australia)
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