"We want to go two-up quickly," he said. "These matches look easy from the outside, but they can be very dicey. The Scots gave the Australians a lot of trouble - we can do without that."

Scotland, with just two professionals in their ranks and making their One-Day International debuts, were far from disgraced in their Group B opener as they made 181 against Australia and then took four wickets.An upset, however, seems out of the question against a Pakistani side which has run into superb form in the months leading up to the tournament.

Their bowlers caught the eye against the West Indies. On Thursday, Akram hopes the batsmen will shine. "This would be agood game for the batsmen to find their touch," he said. "They looked a bit hesitant against the West Indies."

The top order got little opportunity to adjust to English wickets before the tournament, with all three of Pakistan's warm-up matches washed out by rain.Only Ijaz Ahmed, of the top five, scored more than a dozen runs against the West Indies, while Inzamam-ul Haq lasted just one ball. It needed 42 off 28 balls from Akram himself to save his side.

Scottish captain George Salmond, meanwhile, said his team would play as if they had a realistic chance of victory, rather than merely trying to survive against an attack including Shoaib Akhtar, the fastest bowler in the world."Our technique is probably not good enough to last 50 overs against them, but we obviously have to be positive," he said. "That's our style and, although that may not always do us good, we did not do too badly against Australia."

The team's real target is to do enough at the World Cup to impress the International Cricket Councilto grant them one-day status in the near future.

A Pakistan win would give them four points and, with a game to come against Bangladesh, would virtually assure them of a place in the second round.