New Zealand shoots out Scotland for 142

Dunedin, Feb 17 (IANS) A commendable bowling effort saw New Zealand dismiss Scotland for a paltry 142 in a cricket World Cup match here Tuesday.

Left-arm pacer Corey Anderson led the bowling figures with 3/18 and he was well supported by veteran spinner Daniel Vettori (3/24) and the opening pace pair of Tim Southee (2/35) and Trent Boult (2/21).

The co-hosts, who won the toss and chose to bowl, went in to the match at the University Oval here with an unchanged side that won so impressively against Sri Lanka Saturday.

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum made his decision hoping to exploit the moist conditions of the pitch.

His decision was backed by some superb bowling by his opening pace pair who were right on the money from the very beginning and quickly reduced the minnows to 12 for four inside five overs with Boult striking with the first two balls he bowled.

But the innings was resurrected to some extent by a 97-run partnership between left-hand batsman Matt Machan (56) and right hander Richie Berrington (50), but the rest of their batting fell away and New Zealand wrapped up the Scotland innings in just 36.2 overs.

Scotland appeared to have battled away the early blues courtesy of the Machan-Berrinngton partnership and reached 109 but Machan's untimely dismissal by Anderson, who was successful in inducing an edge from him to McCullum in 27.5 overs, saw the batting crumble.

The lower order barely offered any resistance and was shot out without any difficulty. Four Scottish batsmen were dismissed for nought.