Zeecric Bureau/Pratik Dogra
London, June 07: Mighty South Africans enhanced their reputations as one of the pre-season favourites, crushing minnows Scotland by 130 runs.
Having amassed 211/5 from their allotted 20 overs, the clinical South Africans dismantled the Scots for just 81 runs inside 16 overs.
On a day when nothing other than the toss went right for Scotland, the pressure of chasing down a mammoth total proved too much for them, as their batsmen appeared confused- whether to go for runs or try and bat out their quota of 20 overs.As it turned out, the managed to achieve neither.
Coetzer, who had impressed against New Zealand as well on Saturday, and RM Haq were the only Scots to reach double digit scores. While the latter top-scored with 42 runs off 32 balls, Haq managed 15 runs as the remaining batsmen just crumbled under pressure.
Dale Styen, J Botha, RE Merve, and Albie Morkel picked two wickets each, while Parnell scalped one.
Earlier, AB de Villiers inflicted a scintillating assault on the hapless Scotland bowlers to propel South African total to 211/5.
De Villiers, who had endured a purple patch during the just concluded IPL, cleared the rope half a dozen times, besides hitting 5 fours during his violent 79 run knock, that came off just 34 balls.
Inexperience in the Scottish ranks was clearly visible as they struggled to stem the flow of runs as well as pick wickets
South Africa had made a solid start to their ICC World Twenty20 Championships campaign as openers Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith added 87 runs for the first wicket in less than 10 overs.
Kallis, also fresh from a productive IPL season, extended his rich vein of form to the World Cup as well, comfortably out scoring his captain during their brisk partnership.
Kallis fell just 2 runs short of a well deserved half-century, a thick inside edge of RM Haq, rattling his stumps. His 31 ball stay yielded 8 sweetly timed hits to the fence.
Three balls later, Smith to fell, attempting a similar shot, but this time, the edge found its place in the safe hands of the wicket-keeper Colin Smith.
Despite Smith’s loss for a 29 ball 38 (6 fours and 1 six), South Africa, at 88/2 after 10 overs, was left with a sound foundation to launch a final assault.
Even though Scotland managed to snare the dangerous Herchelle Gibbs’ wicket cheaply for just 16 runs, Albie Morkel, along with de Villiers, put their attack to sword.
A 51 run-partnership off just 19 balls, set the ball rolling for South Africans and following Morkel dismissal for 24 runs off 11 balls (1 four and 2 sixes), de Villiers donned the mantle of demolisher.
For Scotland, Drummond (4/40) and Haq (2/25) were chief wicket takers while Watson chipped in with a solitary strike.
Earlier, desperate for victory to stay in contention for further progress in the Championships minnows Scotland invited the mighty South Africans to make first use of The Oval strip here on Sunday.
Teams
South Africa: Graeme Smith (capt), Jacques Kallis, Herschelle Gibbs, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Albie Morkel, Mark Boucher, Roelof van der Merwe, Johan Botha, Wayne Parnell, Dale Steyn
Scotland: Gavin Hamilton (capt), Ryan Watson, Navdeep Poonia, Kyle Coetzer, Colin Smith (wk), Neil McCallum, Jan Stander, Majid Haq, Glenn Rogers, Gordon Drummond, Callum MacLeod
First Published: Sunday, June 07, 2009, 19:17