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Netherlands pulled off a surprisingly thorough win against felow Associate side Scotland, although for both teams this was their final appearance of this World Cup. Going into the tournament, Scotland were the top-ranked of the 5 Associate sides (excluding Kenya, who appear on the main LG ICC rankings and not the Associate version), but they've underperformed in the West Indies and Netherland were pleased to take the opportunity to secure a win for themselves. Batting first, Scotland collapsed to 136 inside 35 overs, a total that Netherlands had no problems chasing down.

Canada weren't so lucky, although they did make New Zealand work during thier final group match. New Zealand batted first and raced their way to an impressive 363/5 from their 50 overs, including 101 from Lou Vincent. In reply, Canada got off to a speedy start thanks to John Davison, who until recently held the record for the fastest World Cup century - he seemed keen to repeat the feat here, and some lose bowling from the Kiwis, particularly Michael Mason, allowed Davison to cut loose. For a while it seemed Canada were on course for an unlikely win, but after Davison fell in the 10th over, the flow of runs dried to a trickle. Canada only just failed to bat out their 50 overs, but by then they were well off the total.
Netherlands beat Scotland by 8 wickets.
New Zealand beat Canada by 114 runs

No upsets today as the minnows stayed firmly in their places, but England did nothing to mark themselves as possible contenders after failing to convincingly see off Canada.

After being in the limelight for all the wrong reasons after Freddie Flintoff's drunken antics, England took to the field without the former vice-captain (dropped for disciplinary reasons), while Canada seemed determined not to be trampled underfoot. Compared to the scores other sides have run up against the weaker Associates, England's 279/6 didn't seem overly impressive, and Canada then went on to put up a fight with the bat - not enough to secure them the win, but enough to make sure they went out of the match without having disgraced themselves, and having raised a number of question marks over England's current form

No such luck for the hapless Dutch, however. Australia continued where South Africa left off, on their way to what was briefly a World Cup record winning margin of 229 runs. Australia's 358 was always out of reach of the Netherlands batsmen, and while they'd at least managed to bat out their overs against the Proteas, there was no such consolation here, thanks mainly to Hogg's 4/27.
Australia beat Netherlands by 229 runs
England beat Canada by 51 runs

Next up: India v Bermuda, and West Indies v Zimbabwe.

Records dropping in huge numbers in yesterday's matches, as South Africa hammered Netherlands and New Zealand convincingly beat England.

Netherlands made it another bad day for the Associate sides, as South Africa showed no mercy and rewrote the record books in the process. The highlight was Herschelle Gibbs' six sixes in one over - the first in ODI cricket - but that was just the icing on the cake. Other records included most century partnerships in an ODI (3), most sixes in an innings (18), fastest 50 in World Cup history (Mark Boucher, off 21 balls), and more besides. In reply, Netherland simply opted to bat out their overs, and eventually fell to a huge 221-run loss.

England, meanwhile, would have been hoping to continue from where they left off against Australia - but so were New Zealand, and the boys from God's own country came out on top against a tame England display. Such was the mood in the England camp after the loss, that "a number" of England players were fined by the ECB for disciplinary offences, after hitting a nightclub after the match. Drowining their sorrows, perhaps? England have failed to go further than the group stage in the last 2 World Cups - you have to wonder if Kenya will be the banana skin to stop them progressing this time around. I'd say the odds were at least even...
South Africa beat Netherlands by 221 runs
New Zealand beat England by 5 wickets

Next up: Bangladesh v India, and Ireland v Pakistan.

Apart from the Zimbabwe v Bermuda match, covered elsewhere, there were three other warm-up matched yesterday, all featuring the sides seeded 9-16: Ireland v Canada, Bangladesh v Scotland, and Kenya v Netherlands. All three went according to the seedings, so no surprises this time around.

Bangaladesh contained Scotland's scoring during the first innings and left themselves with a total of just 152 to chase, and with Habibul Bashar and Mohammad Ashraful both in good form the chase was over within 35 overs. Ireland trounced Canada after bowling them out for just 116 - Dave Langford-Smith picking up 4 wickets along the way. Ireland's bowling form has improved greatly during the warm-up games, and they'll now be seen as the best of the 5 sides who qualified through the ICC Trophy - and from a Zimbabwean point of view, that's quite worrying. Kenya maintained their winning record with a close 9-run win over Netherlands - three Dutch batsmen hit half-centuries to leave their side looking on-course for an upset, but their innings collapsed after the run-out of Ryan ten Doeschate.
Bangladesh beat Scotland by 7 wickets
Ireland beat Canada by 7 wickets
Kenya beat Netherlands by 9 runs

Three other warm-up matches yesterday, apart from the Australia - Zimbabwe clash which I've covered separately. Bangladesh pulled off the first upset of the tournament by beating New Zealand (fresh from giving the Aussies a hammering) by 2 wickets, with Mashrafe Mortaza (4/44 and 30*) being key to the Tigers' performance. Maybe all those ODIs against Zimbabwe have been good practice, and here's hoping Bangladesh can carry on performing once the group stage starts.

Elsewhere, the matches went according to the script. India easily saw off the Dutch challenge, after posting 300 from their 50 overs & bundling the Netherlands out within 38 overs, while Pakistan likewise had few problems dealing with Canada.
Bangladesh beat New Zealand by 2 wickets
Pakistan beat Canada by 77 runs
India beat Netherlands by 182 runs

The next round of warm-up matches begins on Thursday, with four matches featuring the teams seeded 9-16 in the competition: Bermuda v Zimbabwe, Canada v Ireland, Bangladesh v Scotland and Kenya v Netherlands.