World Cup 2015 Match Review: New Zealand vs Scotland

World Cup 2015 Match Review: New Zealand vs Scotland; Kiwis survive a scare to win: The match result was not a surprise, the surprise was the dominance of the Kiwi team in bowling department and Scots showing some fighting spirit in making New Zealand fight for every run they can. There was no question about the ability of Scotland team to perform, the question was will they be overwhelmed by the stage at which they were playing on and wilt under the pressure or could they perform a miracle.

New Zealand won the toss and put Scotland in to bat first and reduced the Scots to 12/4 thanks to some accurate bowling from Trent Boult and Tim Southee. Matt Machan (56) and Richie Berrington (50) tried to bring some respect back into the Scotland innings but Daniel Vettori (3/24) and Corey Anderson (3/18) kept taking wickets at regular intervals which restricted the Scotland team to just 142.

The Kiwi reply began in their typical fashion. They were 48/2 in 6 overs loosing openers Guptill and McCullum. There was a partnership building with Kane Williamson and Grant Elliot who stemmed he fall of wickets and kept picking at the target taking singles and doubles with occasional boundaries. But Scottish bowlers Wardlaw (3/57) and Berrington (3/40) never let the Kiwi batsman settle down and kept thaking wickets whenever a partnership was starting to build.

In the end, the total they were defending proved to be inadequate and New Zealand managed to overhaul it in about 25 overs, thanks to Daniel Vettori and Luke Ronchi. Scotland showed that they could give a tough fight and is very capable of an upset or two. New Zealand on the other hand will try to avoid such collapses in future matches against better teams.

Brief Scores :
Scotland 142 (M Machan 56, R Berrington 50; C Anderson 3/18) lost to New Zealand (K Williamson 38, G Elliot 29; J Davey 3/40) by 3 wickets.