South Africa show Scotland the exit door by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

---

Scorecard:	Scotland v South Africa
Player:	AB de Villiers, JH Kallis, GC Smith, DW Steyn, J Botha, RE van der Merwe, KJ Coetzer, RM Haq
Event:	ICC World Twenty20 2009

---

DateLine: 7th June 2009

 

Swashbuckling batting by AB de Villiers and fiery bowling, first from the South African fast bowlers and then by Johan Botha and Roelof van der Merwe, South Africa ended Scotland's run in the tournament, beating them by a huge margin of 130 runs.

 

Chasing a massive target of 212, Scotland lost Ryan Watson in the very first over, cleaned up by Dale Steyn, and thereafter they just kept losing wickets at regular intervals.

 

Steyn took two early wickets while Wayne Parnell claimed the wicket of Gavin Hamilton to push Scotland on to the back foot even before they had started to look forward to their run chase.

 

Then Botha got into the act picking up two wickets and even before the Scottish team could have reached fifty, more than half their side were back in the dug-out.

 

Kyle Coetzer (42) and Majid Haq (15) then added 38 runs for the seventh wicket taking the score to 79. Coetzer in the process also cleared the ropes thrice, twice in one over off Albie Morkel.

 

Coetzer then tried to hit Van der Merwe out of the park in the next over, only to sky a flighted delivery for the bowler to hold on to a good one. The next ball saw the end of Haq cleaned up by the left-arm spinner.

 

The next two wickets fell with the addition of a mere two runs from where Coetzer and Haq had left and with this, Scotland were outplayed and outclassed by a huge 130 runs.

 

Earlier, having been invited to bat first, South Africa got off to a sedate start courtesy openers Graeme Smith (38 off 29 balls) and Jacques Kallis (48 off 31 balls). The Scottish bowlers were bowling well within themselves till the fourth over as South Africa had scored just 27.

 

Kallis though cut loose in the fifth over. Jan Stander was taken for 21 runs in that over as Kallis hit him for five boundaries. Then Smith took control in the seventh over as he hit left-arm spinner Glenn Rogers for 14 runs which included three hits to the fence.

 

The duo added 87 runs in no time. Then there was the double strike in one over. Haq, who bowled a decent first over sent back both the openers and from 87 for no loss, the scoreboard read 88 for two in 10 overs.

 

Then Ryan Watson accounted for Herschelle Gibbs who had started to look dangerous. After the three quick wickets De Villiers (79 off 34 balls) and Albie Morkel (24 off 11 balls) started to stamp the Protean authority again on the match. De Villiers looked classy and favoured an orthodox approach, hitting elegant drives. He also hit Haq for a flat fix over long-on before going after Rogers, cover-driving the bowler with great flare.

 

Morkel also started to plunder. The left-handed big hitter slammed a couple of sixes and a boundary in his knock. The duo raised the 50-run stand in mere 18 deliveries and though Morkel fell shortly after, De Villiers carried on to raise a 25-ball fifty.

 

Scotland also had one glorious moment. Mark Boucher, on two, smashed Gordon Drummond over the top but Coezter was lurking somewhere at long-on. He took an astonishing catch plucking the ball from thin air.