Cricket World Cup: Mum happy to back her team solo

David, Thomas and Bronwyn Carr are divided in their loyalties. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Aussie-Kiwi family continue 16 years of intense rivalry when the Black Caps face Australia on Saturday.

There's bound to be a bit of tension in the Carr household on Saturday morning.

Bronwyn Carr, husband David, and 15-year-old son Thomas will be among 41,000 fans watching the Black Caps play Australia at Eden Park in the Cricket World Cup.

But Mrs Carr, a Kiwi, is flying her New Zealand flag solo, as the rest of the household supports the Aussies. It's the way it's been for the past 16 years of marriage, and unlikely to change anytime soon.

"[Thomas] has supported Australia since birth because his dad's Australian," she said. "Usually I'm quite quiet during the summer because I don't have a lot to support, let's face it, but we're doing quite well at the moment so I'm going to step it up this year. I'm just really pleased at how well the Black Caps are going ... this is our year."

Despite her support for the Kiwis, she's not sure who's going to win this weekend.

"It's going to be close and we've certainly shown so far that we can do it but Australia's not Scotland, or England, for that matter."

As for that thrashing against the Poms, Mrs Carr said although England didn't play that well, the Black Caps' performance was perfect.

"We bowled well, we batted well and we fielded well. What else is there?"

She wanted to see New Zealand's top order batsmen stand up to the the Aussie bowlers, which include the fiery Mitchell Johnson. But: "I think it's going to come down to our bowlers, they're really going to have to fire."

Michael Clarke was training with the Australian team at Eden Park yesterday. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The Australian team spent a couple of hours training at the park yesterday after arriving in the country on Sunday.

Players get a rest from cricket and media today as they're free to see the sights before getting back into training tomorrow.

For those lucky enough to be seeing the game in the flesh, it might pay to pack an umbrella as MetService is predicting showers. The game, the marquee clash of Pool A, is scheduled to begin at 2pm.

Meanwhile, England put in a much improved performance against Scotland yesterday at Hagley Oval in Christchurch. Batting first, they put on 303 runs led by a century from opener Moeen Ali.

They dominated with the ball as well, dismissing Scotland for 184 in 42.2 overs.

Eye on the skies
The forecast for Saturday's big game at Eden Park, according to MetService, is for overcast conditions with showers and light winds. A high of about 25C degrees will drop to 17C overnight.

Late offering of tickets
The titanic Cricket World Cup battle between the Black Caps and Australia is a sell-out this weekend, but there's a chance there will be a late offering of tickets. A Cup spokesman said some hospitality packages were still available, so there was a chance there would be a small release of tickets from sponsor returns. Should that happen, people needed to join the waiting list on the Cricket World Cup website.