Scotland recovered from a disastrous start to give tournament Hosts New Zealand a scare before going down by three wickets.

Scotland opened their World Cup campaign against hosts and one of the tournament favourites New Zealand at the University Oval in Dunedin.

Brendon McCullum won the toss for the home side and had no hesitation in deciding to field first in the belief that the pitch would provide assistance early on for his bowlers.

It was a wise choice as Boult dismissed MacLeod and Gardiner with successive balls in the second over of the match to put Scotland on the back foot.

Worse was to follow as Southee then performed a similar feat in the fifth over when he got rid of Coetzer and Mommsen to leave Scotland in disarray at 12 for 4.

It was left to Machan and Berrington to combat the New Zealand swing bowling which they did with a 97 run partnership which took twenty three overs to complete before Corey Anderson broke their resistance when he had Machan caught by keeper Ronchi for a well compiled 56.

Barrington reached his own fifty and then fell to Anderson as he tried to hook him over fine leg only to find the safe hands of Adam Milne and New Zealand were back in control of the match with the score on 117 for 6.

The lower order and tail could not provide any real resistance as they last four wickets fell for only 25 runs as veteran spinner Daniel Vettori took control ending the Scottish innings by dismissing Haq and Wardlaw with successive deliveries to finish with 3 for 24.

All the New Zealand bowlers stuck to their plans with Anderson the pick finishing with 3 for 18 and Southee and Boult claiming two wickets each.

The Scottish batsmen will be disappointed that they failed to combat the conditions better and to fully utilise their fifty over allocation being all out in the thirty seventh over with five of them getting ducks.

New Zealand began the run chase in a hurry as they took the field before lunch with Guptill and McCullum looking to score quick runs.  Guptill had reached the boundary four times before he had a go at another Wardlaw delivery looking to lift the ball over long off but only succeeding in  finding the gloves of Cross. He had made 17 of the 18 on the board.

It should have been even better for Scotland as McCullum was dropped  by Gardiner shortly thereafter which allowed the home side to move on to 48 before the same batsman was caught by Cross off the bowling of Wardlaw.

New Zealand continued to control the match as they moved to 106 for 4 with Kane Williamson top scoring with 38 before Josh Davey snapped up a couple of late wickets as the home side edged over the line with three wickets in hand and plenty overs to spare.

Wardlaw and Davey both picked up three wickets with Haq capturing the other.

After the match Scotland captain Preston Mommsen lamented on the two dropped chances which might have made a difference.

Scotland now move on to Christchurch where their opponents will be England on six day's time

SCORECARD.