The Scots were given a taste of international cricket when they were routed by South Africa by a whopping margin of 130 runs; the second-highest ever in the history of T20I cricket. With this, South Africa and New Zealand become the first two teams to enter the Super Eights stage, and Scotland will need to take a flight back home.
Scotland inserted the opposition in after they won the toss, but were immediately put to sword by the South African openers, Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis. The duo added 87 runs for the first wicket before both departed in the same over within one run of each other; Majiq Haq the beneficiary. But, if the Scotts thought that they could creep into the game with these couple of wickets, A.B. de Villiers shut them out forever!
Scotland, probably overawed by the occasion and the target, capitulated from the very beginning and lost wickets at regular intervals. Dale Steyn began the rot by getting rid of Ryan Watson in the very first over, while the next three fell within the first three overs of the game; Scotland 13/4!
De Villiers was the obvious choice for the man-of-the-match.
What's your take? Write a comment (3 comments)
South Africa are probably the strongest contenders here, along with India and New Zealand. While the rest are there, there isn't much consistency in their performances.
It came as no surprise. The Scots were totally out of their league and should have been with one of the more "cocky" nations such as Australia and England. With all due respect to their players and fans, these two teams do have the tendency to shrug off lower opposition - a bad habit that India seems to be getting now. Overconfidence has sent the Aussies home already. Wonder what will happen to England.
Scotland, unlike Holland and Ireland, are a little out of their depth here. Too bad that they were put into a group that had SAF and NZ because both these teams are known to take every game seriously, not like an Australia (nowadays) or England that may take the tournament or a game lightly.