THEY were inspired, brutal, flawed and comical all at the same time, but ultimately Scotland were second best in their first match of the World Twenty20 in London and will stare ejection in the face this evening.

After what was probably the fiercest display of sustained aggression by any Scotland batting line-up, Gavin Hamilton's men were supremely confident of denying New Zealand the target of 90 they needed off seven overs.

Doing so would have left a strong New Zealand side on the brink of elimination and allowed the Scots to join the Netherlands, conquerors of England at Lord's, in the giant-killers' club.

In the end, the bowlers and fielders committed too many glitches and the Black Caps punished them with impunity, winning with six balls to spare. In a contest reduced by rain to just seven overs per side, that is a resounding margin and Hamilton knew it.

'I don't want to come in here and criticise our bowlers but we had specific plans and set fields for those plans, and they didn't execute their skills properly,' said the captain, who can at least make plans for South Africa today knowing he has real firepower at his disposal.

'For half of that match we were absolutely tremendous, and we were incredibly confident that we could win with that many runs on the board. But we've talked so many times about putting all three disciplines together and if we had done that today, we would have won the match.

'If you'd told me this morning we would come this close to beating New Zealand I would have probably bitten your hand off, but right now it really feels like we shouldn't have come off that pitch beaten.'

Scotland's top three were audacious, living every minute by the sword, and deserved to be on the winning side. Ryan Watson sent six of his ten balls for four; Kyle Coetzer scored 33 off 15 balls and Navdeep Poonia chipped in with 27 off the same number.

Their accomplishments were matched, but never overshadowed, by Jesse Ryder, Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor, whose task was made easier by three no-balls, a dropped catch and a missed stumping.

Still, the affair was tight enough for man-of-the-match Ian Butler to declare that he'd 'never been so nervous in a cricket match', and for McCullum, standing in for the injured Daniel Vettori, to comment: 'The Scots were incredibly brave in the way they batted with such freedom. After last night's game I was feeling pretty apprehensive about this one and at half-time I was extremely nervous.'

The torch was lit by former captain Watson, whose hunched, anxious presence at the crease had become a symbol of Scotland's recent travails.

Here he discovered the swashbuckling form of old, clearing the infield four times in Iain O'Brien's first over, the last blow an imperious lofted drive.

The minnows were 30-0 from two overs, whereupon they suffered their first blip when Watson carved one into the covers and Taylor held the catch. No matter: Coetzer found the boundary first ball and after Jacob Oram's tight fourth over, which cost seven, the batsmen began to indulge themselves again.

Presented with Jesse Ryder's medium pace, Coetzer found the gap at backward square before waiting for the next one and despatching a flat drive for six – comfortably the classiest shot of the day. When Poonia added a six and a four off Oram, the county pair touched gloves to acknowledge a 50 partnership from just 22 balls.

With one over to go and the Scots on a dreamy 81-1, they had half an eye on 100 – a submission which really would have had the Kiwis quaking in their spikes. Instead, three wickets ended the innings as Coetzer was caught behind, Poonia was run out trying to steal a bye and Colin Smith missed Butler's full toss.

Calum MacLeod was treated respectfully at first but then McCullum helped himself to four consecutive boundaries and his team never fell back behind the asking rate.

Ryder took 20 from Craig Wright's first four balls before holing out, and McCullum was unforgivably run out by Coetzer after hitting a free hit straight to him. When the fielder dropped the 'catch' McCullum and Taylor agreed at first on a second run, but Taylor changed his mind and Smith had an age to do the necessary.

Drummond, on such a steep learning curve, won't want to remember overstepping twice and dropping a ball that he inadvertently drop-kicked for four, and Jan Stander was taken apart by Taylor when the end was in sight.

Watson took one wicket for four runs in his solitary over, which begged the question why that was the only time in the match spin bowling was indulged.

Hamilton's seamers bowled length, length and more length and were annihilated, but when asked why he hadn't placed trust more in spin, he explained that Watson was going to bowl the last over, missing the angle of the question that the axing of Majid Haq and Glenn Rogers that may have been an oversight. Still, it's as easy to pick holes in policy as it is to lavish praise – of which Scotland are fully entitled to for the most thrilling seven overs of batsmanship since Watson and James Brinkley flayed Somerset around the Grange in 2003.