New Zealand Beats Scotland by 7 Wickets in Lone ODI
On the lone One Day International between New Zealand and Scotland, the visitors had another good day as they beat the hosts by 7 wickets while chasing 307 runs.
Scotland decided to bat and was having trouble about the halfway point, but the partnership of Cross and Leask enabled them to get back on track to achieve a respectable total. To gain some momentum, both batters countered and notched their respective fifties. Scotland scored 148 runs between overs 25 and 42 for the loss of one wicket as a result of this strategy. Leask recorded his greatest score in an ODI, and cameos from Watt and Sharif ultimately enabled them to surpass the 300 runs mark.
Although New Zealand lost their top three batsmen in the first 25 overs, they never appeared to be in trouble. With their batting depth and recent performance, it was only a matter of time. Mark Chapman and Daryl Mitchell just continued where they left off in their previous white ball game. The couple switched gears and reduced the required tempo after patiently waiting their turn and managing the field with wise singles and timely boundaries. It’s a rare day, it must be mentioned, when every batter got a solid hit in the middle.
Despite the top three failing to capitalize on their openings, Mitchell and Chapman made sure to lead their team home with ease. The match-winning 175-run fourth wicket stand undid the only bright spot with the ball, Michael Leask, who nipped out two set hitters (Guptill and Cleaver) in consecutive overs to offer a ray of hope.
For the manner he approached the chase, played percentage shots in the middle overs, then buried the game in the 43rd over when he hit Hamza Tahir for three sixes, Chapman deserves particular praise. Scotland missed a few opportunities to capture fish, but I don’t think that would have changed the outcome.
At the post-match presentation, Richie Barrington, the Scotland captain said, “The first innings we missed out getting to 350, especially after that first 10 overs. To really have a good chance we needed to get over 350, unfortunately, we couldn’t quite capitalize. We didn’t manage to get those wickets in the middle overs. I thought they spun the ball well and it was quite challenging. Crossy and Leask played really well. A lotof learnings we can take from the experience we had this week and few things to build on for the future.”
The winning New Zealand captain M Santner looked happy with the victory as he said, “It was pretty good, clinical chase. We had them five down quickly but then Leask and Cross played extremely well and on the flip side, it was a par score on that wicket. We knew he (Chapman) is a quality player and he’s made the most of the opportunity. We kind of had a period where we were 140–3 and it could have gone either way, but that partnership was brilliant and took the game away from them.”
PLAYER OF THE MATCH: Mark Chapman
