In fact, the last two overs — bowled by RP Singh and Irfan Pathan — went for 31 runs, as New Zealand went past the 150-barrier. Earlier, New Zealand opener Brendon McCullum (31) and Ross Taylor (41) set the platform for the Kiwis to post a big total. But Ishant kept chipping away with the wickets to halt their charge.

Brief scores: New Zealand 170 for 7 (R Taylor 41, B McCullum 31; I Sharma 4/25, Harbhajan Singh 1/22) vs India

Watson stars in Oz win

Nottingham: Shane Watson’s rapid fifty and three wickets from Mitchell Johnson helped Australia manage a 38-run win against Bangladesh in a World T20 warm-up match here.

Batting first, Ricky Ponting’s men piled up 219 for six. Watson led with 52 off 23 balls and, with wicketkeeper Brad Haddin (47), put on 100 for the first wicket. Off-spinner Mohammad Mahmudullah took four for 37.

In response, Tamim Iqbal gave Bangladesh a blazing start, taking 18 off Nathan Bracken’s first over and Shakib Al Hasan kept up the tempo with a quickfire 54 and gave a scare to the Aussies but their dismissals restored normalcy and Bangladesh finished with 38-runs adrift of the target.

Brief scores: Australia: 219 for 6 (S. Watson 52, B. Haddin 47; Mahmudullah 4-37); Bangladesh: 181 for 7 (Shakib Al Hasan 54, Mahmudullah 31 n.o., Bracken 2-32, Lee 2-32; Johnson 3-21)

Ireland win in Super Over

London: The warm-up match between Ireland and Netherlands ended in a tie, with Ireland winning by four runs in the Super Over.

The Netherlands’ fast bowler Dirk Nannes was economical in all his spells and rightly took the ball to bowl the Super Over. He conceded three runs off the bat and three more extras meant the Netherlands needed seven to win via Super Over. Trent Johnston however, held his nerve and dismissed Bas Zuiderent stumped off the third ball and ran our william Porterfield off the next to end the Netherlands innings.

Brief scores: Ireland 135 for 7 (Botha 35; Seelar 3-28); The Netherlands 135 for 9 (ten Doeschate 29; McCallan 3-32, Rankin 2-24)

SA batsmen dominate

Nottingham: Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal continued their good run with the ball, picking two wickets each, while the rest of the Pakistan bowling were shred to pieces by a strong batting by South Africa. Captain Graeme Smith led from the front, top-scoring with a 53-ball 70, while Gibbs chipped in with a 22-ball 42 to propel their team to 186/7 in 20 overs.

Brief scores: South Africa 186 for 7 (G Smith 70, H Gibbs 42; S Ajmal 2/24, S Afridi 2/34) vs Pakistan