Title: New Zealand comfortably beat Scotland

Desc:

It was a seven-over match, after the rains played spoil sport. It looked as if we were heading for another upset of the T20 tournament. Scotland had started in top gear and stayed there through their innings to set a challenging target, but New Zealand's array of big-hitters knocked off the runs in style with an over to spare.

Ryan Watson entertained the audience with a flurry of boundaries in the first over, and though he was dismissed in the third over, Kyle Coetzer and Navdeep Poonia hit 59 in 27 balls to keep a weakened New Zealand bowling on the backfoot. Daniel Vettori and Kyle Mills were injured.

Coetzer took on Jesse Ryder, hitting 14 off three balls. They could have reached 100 had it not been for the three wickets that fell on the final three deliveries off the innings, bowled by Man-of-the-Match Ian Butler.

Brendon McCullum slammed four off-side boundaries off the first over. Ryder ably supported him by showing his range of hitting in the third over, hitting 20 runs off the first four balls to take New Zealand past 50.

Scotland allowed the Kiwis to hit them at will. Their bowlers made it worse by bowling no-balls. The fielding was below-par as well, with Gordon Drummond's miss of a simple skier from Jacob Oram in the fifth over epitomising the effort. Watson had tried to get Scotland back with a tight start to that over, but not only did Drummond fluff the chance, the ball rolled over for four vital runs as well. The wicketkeeper Colin Smith dropped a tougher opportunity off Ross Taylor later in the over, and was a bit tardy in attempting a stumping as well.

Scotland could not afford such slip-ups, and New Zealand duly completed the job in the next over, plundering 22, including three sixes off the first four balls.

The shortened match also meant Scotland's run-rate took a huge hit - they are now at -2.2 - which means they will mostly need a big win against a strong South Africa on Sunday if they are to stay in the tournament.

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