Preston Mommsen won the toss and asked New Zealand to bat in the hope that his bowlers could make the most of the conditions.

Wardlaw and Taylor made early breakthroughs when they each picked up a wicket to leave the home side on 20 for 2.

However New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum and former Scotland recruit Tom Latham steadied the innings with an eighty two run partnership for the third wicket before McCullum was caught by Gardiner off the bowling of Majid Haq for 52.

His runs had come from only 44 balls and included five fours and three maximums.

Latham also departed on the same score to make it 102 for 4 to put Scotland back on track.

The Scottish attack continued to take wickets with Munro (8) Ronchi (18) and Vettori (12) all departing, however Corey Anderson batting at five provided stiffer opposition reaching a well-deserved fifty before he became the eighth wicket to fall with the score on 204.

Some late order hitting by Kyle Mills (33) and Matt Henry (21*) who put on 55 for the tenth wicket saw New Zealand close on 263 all out in their fifty overs.

Richie Berrington was the pick of the Scottish attack picking up three wickets for 66 with Wardlaw Evans and Haq all picking up two wickets.

Scotland’s reply got off to the worst possible start as Kyle Coetzer was well caught by Henry off the bowling of Mills in the opening over.

His opening partner MacLeod looked in good touch hitting five fours as he raced to 22 from 20 balls before Mills returned the favour for Henry taking a catch in the deep to make it 35 for 2.

It quickly became 41 for 3 when Mommsen departed without scoring and it was left to Hamish Gardiner and Matt Machan to get the Scotland innings back on track with a century partnership.

They took the score to 152 before Gardiner was out for 54 in the thirty first over.

Machan then received good support from Freddie Coleman before he became the fifth wicket to fall on 177. He had made 83 from 86 balls with his innings including eight fours and one six.

Coleman continued to hold the innings together with the help of the lower order but when he was the ninth wicket to fall in the forty seventh over for 56 it left Scotland requiring 21 from 19 balls for victory.

Haq and Evans each found the boundary as they took the match to the final ball of the innings with Scotland requiring two runs to win.

Evans dug out a McClenaghan Yorker to cover and set off for the run, but McCullum fielded the ball and returned it to the non-strikers end where Evans despite the dive was run out to see the home side to victory by the slenderest of margins.

Scotland will take massive positives from this performance as they now look to their next match which is against Canterbury at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Friday (17 October).

SCORECARD