Scots unable to upset Black Caps
kiwis show no mercy and wrap it up against scotland before lunch with an impressive display
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The gulf between the haves and have-nots of world cricket was put on stark display at Mannofield yesterday. New Zealand may have had the best of the conditions but in this contest, it really was men against boys.
No shame. The Black Caps are the third-best one-day team in the world, and showed why with a ruthless and relentless display which ensured the match was finished before lunchtime.
No sympathy or sentiment from the tourists, this was a match to win and in overcast conditions a successful toss of the coin meant a bowling day.
Scotland made one change to the team which defeated Ireland on Wednesday, Fraser Watts dropped in favour of Warwickshire's Navdeep Poonia. They made the worst possible start.
Captain Ryan Watson completed a miserable tournament with the bat by getting out for a duck for the second day in succession, chopping the fourth ball of the match from bustling opening bowler Mark Gillespie on to his stumps.
STEMMED
Fellow-opener Gavin Hamilton had been the hammer of the Irish on Wednesday, scoring his first international one-day hundred as Scotland paced their run chase to perfection. But against international class bowling he too could do little.
With the score on only 12 Gillespie ripped a brutal, swinging yorker through his defences and the former England allrounder was gone. It was some return for Gillespie who had fallen foul of his allergy to mushrooms and nuts earlier in the week and was only passed fit on the eve of the game.
Poonia and Qasim Sheikh stemmed the flurry of wickets, quite how at times was a mystery as they constantly waved and wafted at deliveries and the scoreline approached respectability at 34-2 before Poonia fenced once too often to a good ball from Jacob Oram and was caught brilliantly by wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum – not only does he score great centuries he can also catch pigeons.
Then came the rain and Aberdeenshire's Colin Smith. With the bowlers struggling to maintain a grip a flurry of boundaries at least gave the hardy spectators plenty to cheer about with the city policeman perhaps only making one mistake when he decided to charge down the wicket to Oram. Not a wise idea, but at least he survived.
Not for long and as the rain crashed down, Smith was snared by the diving McCullum trying to pull a short ball. Four down with little more than 50 on the board soon became five when Sheikh played on.
With the rain cascading down the Black Caps were pressing for quick wickets. They got them and Scotland were in the mire.
At least they managed to better their lowest one-day international score, 68 all out when routed by the West Indies in the World Cup of 1999 at Leicester.
Of that team only Hamilton and John Blain survived to take on the Black Caps, although Gordon Goudie ensured he would have something to tell the grandchildren about when he clubbed Black Caps captain Daniel Vettori over mid on for the first six of the day.
Somehow Scotland scraped their way past the 100 mark, but it couldn't last and Vettori had the final say when he trapped Dewald Nel in front for his second wicket of the day.
TARGET
A target of 102 for the Black Caps, and they followed Scotland's lead by losing a wicket with the fourth ball of the match.
Peter Fulton – two metre Peter – clipped Blain off his legs for a boundary, but then played all around a straight one and was lbw.
A dream start for Scotland, but it couldn't last and McCullum was soon in his stride with a succession of boundaries.
Ross Taylor got into the act, carving Dewald Nel over backward point for a maximum as the runs flowed.
McCullum went for one shot too many and was caught at mid on by Goudie off the bowling of Nel, but Ross Taylor ensured there would be no surprises, unleashing a series of blistering drives around the ground.
The end came shortly after 2pm with the sunshine finally breaking through. A shame, but fitting the sun shone on the Black Caps.
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