THE heavens weren't kind to Scotland, the New Zealanders even less so, and the Triangular Series in Aberdeen ended on a damp note yesterday when the hosts were bundled out for 101 and the Black Caps completed their objective at five past two, 88 balls into the reply.
After Wednesday's blissful sunshine, an unforeseen smog of grey cloud hung over Mannofield and, in 75 per cent humidity, Daniel Vettori won the toss, smiled and sent the Scots in to bat. At the end of a nine-week tour, his men wanted a final blow-out
and they bowled quite ruthlessly to expedite their retirement to the bar.
Scotland's submission was their second-lowest in one-day internationals and 20 less than they managed against the Kiwis in Edinburgh at the 1999 World Cup, but the batters have rarely been subjected to such burning scrutiny as that which Qasim Sheikh endured for a painstaking hour.
The rookie No3 couldn't get near the ball as it zipped through and around him, taking 20 deliveries to get off the mark, but he gritted his teeth, came out of his shell and top-scored with 18.
It was that kind of session: defiance was all you could expect from the unrefined amateurs in the face of such a battery. Ryan Watson had chopped the ball on to his stumps for a second straight duck; Gavin Hamilton, a centurion against Ireland, had looked comfortable until Mark Gillespie got under his feet with a yorker.
Briefly Scotland rallied. Navdeep Poonia, having flown up from Birmingham the night before and taken the place of Fraser Watts, cleared the infield several times and when Jacob Oram accounted for him, Colin Smith took the fight to his fellow giant, cutting and driving the bowler for four in one over.
Sheikh also came to the party, issuing a sublime straight drive and then a swatted four at the first sight of Vettori, the world's No1 bowler in this format.
But Oram had Smith caught behind down the leg side, and when Sheikh suffered the same fate as his captain, it began to rain steadily, both in wickets and in water. The Aberdonian crowd of 1,000 were grateful to a local boy, Gordon Goudie, for the two convincing blows that provided Scotland with the paper-thin shelter of three figures. And, in the 34th over, Vettori had the final word.
It came as no surprise when Scotland's champion bowlers, used to confronting indefensible totals, retained their pride. John Blain's third ball was flicked for four, but he held his line with the next and trapped the towering Peter Fulton lbw.
One consolation for the punters was to see Brendon McCullum's extraordinary wrist speed up close, but apart from one six over extra cover he was rather overshadowed by Ross Taylor, who drove at Blain with powerful precision and took his aggregate for the series to 120 runs from 65 balls.
After a couple of near misses, Dewald Nel reaped his reward with the scalp of McCullum for 22, but that only brought Scott Styris out of the hut, which epitomised both New Zealand's strength in one-day cricket and their utter commitment to confronting all opponents with the same, iron exterior.
"We wanted to be just as professional and ruthless as we were in the England one-day series," said Vettori. "This wasn't going to be a holiday by any means, and that's why we put out two strong teams. The performances reflected that. Scotland and Ireland have some good individual players and now they have to get the team dynamic going. The way one-day cricket is going, you need ten or 11 players who can compete."
Taylor's acknowledgment that the toss had been crucial would have come as a relief to a resigned Watson, who reflected: "Nothing went our way and it's disappointing that we got a decent crowd and we couldn't give them 100 overs of cricket.
