Having made history on Monday by winning an Intercontinental Cup match for the first time, Bermuda's current crop of cricketers will make a little bit more tomorrow when they step onto the field at the National Sports Centre for their four-day game against Scotland.

For the first time since the Island became a member of the International Cricket Council's Associate nations, they will play in their own country, and will do so with a young side that is brimming with confidence.

Less than a month ago, they would have been given only a slight chance of beating Scotland this week, but times have changed and expectations have risen.

While Scotland can still be considered overwhelming favourites to win the game, one thing in Bermuda's favour is that the two sides are a bit of mystery to each other.

Bermuda have changed in recent months, with just four members of the World Cup side appearing in Canada last week. In the abscence of the likes of Lionel Cann, Janeiro Tucker and Malachi Jones, a new crop of players have taken the chance to shine and have achieved something their predecessors never did.

Scotland have changed too, leaving a raft of experienced players at home, with the likes of Gavin Hamilton and Ryan Watson being given a well-earned rest, and in their place have included the likes of Qasim Sheikh and Richie Bennington.

Even so, Scotland coach Peter Steindl isn't underestimating the challenge his side face, and is expecting the hosts to attack his team from the very first ball.

"We know about a few of the guys, but it is a little bit of a journey into the unknown coming out here," he said. "I know that Bermuda have done well in the last few days in Canada, they are obviously going to be on a high from that and they are going to come really hard at us, and we've got to meet that, and come hard back."

And it isn't just 11 cricketers that Scotland will have to beat, they will have to overcome the heat that has slowly been building on the Island over the last couple of weeks.

"It's a bit of a change from what we've just come from," said Steindl. "That's one of the reasons why we have come out a couple of days before the game and why we had two hard training sessions today (yesterday).

"We want to get acclimatised as quickly as we can and it's been reasonably warm back home so we just need a couple of days to get used to it. Preparation is going to be very important. We went hard in training today, and we'll relax a bit more and ease into it tomorrow, but over the course of the four days it becomes more of a physical challenge, and we will certainly be pushing hard to finish every session strongly."

The tourists are at the beginning of a hectic schedule of cricket that includes the Twenty20 World Cup qualifying tournament in Belfast at the beginning of August. Bermuda will be there as well, and it is the first chance for the teams to have a good look at each other.

"We've got seven weeks of pretty much full time cricket at the moment," said Stendl, "and we are in the second week of that, so we are using this (time in Bermuda) to also condition the guys as much as possible.

"But it is a great opportunity for us a couple of days before the game to be able to get the guys together and do some work, we don't always gets that chance back home.

"The build-up is about Belfast and beyond. We are really trying to develop a side and a style of cricket that means in one-day or four-day cricket we can compete against whoever we are playing.

"It's important that we get the chance to play as much as possible, so we're building up to the Twenty20, and then we have games against Kenya and we've all got the World Cup qualifiers next year.

"In four-day cricket you've got to get your bowlers bowling lots of sets and you hope your batters are ruthless and score big. The shortened form of the game is entirely different, but at the same time it's an opportunity to see the players up close and see how they play, and it gives Bermuda the opportunity to do the same to us."