New Zealand were somewhat unconvincing with the bat in their win against Scotland in Tuesday’s World Cup clash.
After the Scots were sent in first and mistakenly thought 142 was a par score, it seemed New Zealand would make short work on the run chase. Whilst they managed to reach the total in less than 25 overs they seemed to have trouble holding on to their wickets with only two batsmen scoring over 20.
Scotland had a less than desirable start to their innings crumbling to 4 for 12 before the 5th over. Matt Machan (56) and Richard Berrington (50) managed to put on a 97-run fifth-wicket stand and save the minnows from a complete whitewash.
Bowling credits were shared acorss the NZ unit with Daniel Vettori and Corey Anderson both snagging 3 wickets. Trent Boult and Tim Southee managed 2 wickets a piece, with both sitting on unfulfilled hat-tricks before the 5th over was done.
So while the final score may not initially suggest it, this is another case of one of the “lesser” teams troubling the big guns in the 2015 World Cup. We can only hope this trend continues and we get some quality upsets throughout.
