Despite their difficult position, New Zealand all-rounder Amelia Kerr believes qualification remains possible.

“Yeah, there’s still mathematically an opportunity. We win three games of cricket and we obviously will need other results to go our way. But as we’ve seen in this tournament, any team can beat anyone. And I think the standard of this pool, especially the way Ireland and Scotland have played, having not played as many World Cups as other teams, they’ve been brilliant. And there’s no reason why any team can’t beat anyone,” Kerr said after the Ireland game.

Those words underline the unpredictability of Group B and explain why Scotland, despite being underdogs on paper, are unlikely to be underestimated by the defending champions.