On day 4 there was a clash between a favourite and a minnow. The match in which a minnow gave hard time to a favourite. A minnow made a favourite work hard for runs in the chase which was a cake walk for that favourite. Let's see how that happened.
Game 6: New Zealand vs Scotland.
New Zealand won the toss and elected to field first. Boult and Southee took two new balls. We saw the glimpses of this duo complementing each other well during CLT20 last year. The duo is together again this time for New Zealand in the world cup. This time both of them are using home conditions to the greater effect. In this match Boult struck twice of his first two deiliveries. Basically he was on a hat trick on the third ball of his first over. Though he didn't get the hat trick but it is a dream start for any bowler.
I checked twitter before switching on the tv and got the update of Boult's two wickets in two balls. At that moment I knew that it is going to be a low scoring game. By the time I switched on the tv Scotland were four down in the fifth over and this time Southee picked up two wickets in two balls. It looked like both Southee and Boult are in race of who will get the hat trick first. They were just unplayable that morning. Then Machan and Berrington started building a partnership and they were slower than a snail in making runs. I started wondering like how to spend rest of the night. It really got boring both of them made half centuries before getting out and took Scotland past 100 runs.
Then again there was flurry of wickets. To end the Scotland innings Vettori took two wickets in two balls. Scotland made record of most golden ducks in an innings. Day before Ireland made record of chasing 300+ totals. We had another record by a minnow but of most no of golden ducks in an innings. It was disappointing batting display from Scotland but superb bowling from New Zealand. I was eagerly waiting for kiwis to come out to bat as I had to leave for office at 7:30.
Guptill and McCullum came out to bat and started the innings the way it was expected from them. New Zealand again was off to a flyer but it looked like New Zealand batsmen came out with a mission to finish the game earliest. While doing that New Zealand started loosing wickets. McCullum and Guptill went in quick succession. Taylor followed them but then there was good sensible partnership between Williamson and Elliot which took New Zealand to the total of 106 but then again kiwi Batsmen hurried towards a target and again started loosing wickets. To get to a total of 143 New Zealand lost 7 wickets. In order to boost net run rate New Zealand came on the verge of defeat but won it in the end.
Overall day 4 brought a low scoring game with itself but a tight one as there was a bit of drama in the end. Actually it was needed after too many high scoring games these kind of games kill the over confidence of favourites and provide belief to minnows. As it was a low scoring game the amount of words are also low in this post. Looking forward to day 5.
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