Australia have defeated Scotland by 7 wickets with 208 balls remaining in a rain affected match at Bellerive Oval. After bowling out the World Cup minnows for 130 runs in just 25.4 over, the Aussies chased down the total in 15.2 overs.
Mitchell Starc claimed 4 wickets, while Michael Clarke starred with the bat for Australia. Looking down and out with four ducks on the scorecard, the Scots innings was made a little brighter with an impressive 40 runs from 35 balls to Matt Machan that included some technically elegant shots.
Five players recorded ducks in a disappointing display from the Scots. The Australian’s bowled well and held each chance in the field, but the lack of experience from the Scottish attack was evident.
Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins combined for 7 wickets with Johnson, Watson and Maxwell all claiming for Australia. Starc claimed 4-14 in an inspired spell that has him on top of the World Cup lead wicket-takers list with 16.
At 7/79 Scotland worked their way stubbornly towards the 130 total. A flurry of runs from Leask and Davey came about as Clarke refused to move his attacking field, looking to close out the match in the face of an impeding washout.
“I think there was obviously doubt about getting a result, there was rain forecast and it didn’t look great,” Clarke said.
The Australian captain made the decision to send Scotland in after winning the toss. With doubts as to whether the match would survive the impending showers, Clarke’s intentions were clear.
“We just wanted to win this game to finish second rather than third or fourth.”
There were two delays in the match and the Australian batsmen were committed to claiming the win with some typical hard hitting from the opening over. In an interesting move however, Clarke chose to open the batting. The captain hit an impressive 47 (47) including 7 fours and 2 sixes, before he was well caught on the boundary.
Australia lost 3 wickets in their chase, but never looked like losing control of the match. Only the elements threatened to steal the victory and David Warner did his best to prevent that from happening, hitting 21 runs from 6 balls. His 2 boundaries and 2 sixes sealed the win for the Aussies who finished second in their pool behind New Zealand with 4 wins, 1 loss and 1 no-result due to a washout.
Australia will play either Pakistan or Ireland who will battle it out on Sunday.
