Australia vs Scotland, 40th Match, Pool A at Hobart, , Mar 14 2015 - Ball by Ball Commentary

8.00pm That's all from us for this game. Do tune in for tomorrow's matches and the rest of the World Cup too, and keep sending in your comments. Until next time, good night!

Michael Clarke: "Fortunately we got enough time, credit to the way the boys played. It's always nice to win. I don't think there's any better preparation for a quarterfinal. We had one little hiccup against New Zealand, but the boys are excited and looking forward to the quarterfinals. [Twitter question - can Australia go all the way?] We're about to find out. Three games, if we play our best, we can win. If we don't, we'll be on the couch watching."

Preston Mommsen: We knew it was always going to be a tough game. We wanted to stand up to the challenge. We take a huge amount of positives from the past six games. The more we've played, the better we've gotten. We leave the World Cup a much stronger team. As a team we're very proud of [Davey's] achievements, he can hold his head high. Our focus now shifts to the World T20 qualifiers, hopefully we'll be able to qualify."

Rohit: "To AUSinCH: If Aus and Ind both get past the quarterfinals, then they will meet in the semifinals."

Mitchell Starc is the Man of the Match (Brendon Julian calls him Mitch Johnson by mistake): "We're done and dusted with the group stages. We're looking forward to the knockouts. I've been working at [my bowling] quite hard with Craig McDermott since the one-day series in Zimbabwe. Look forward to continue with [my form] through the back-end [of the World Cup]."

AUSinCH: "That near-simultaneous finish is an omen! Australia will scrape past India in the final. ;) "

7.45pm Rain kept everyone on their toes in what was otherwise one of the most one-sided matches of this World Cup. At the end of it, Australia seal second place in Group A. Scotland end their third World Cup still searching for their first win.

Australia need 7, India need 9. Leask comes on to bowl his offspin from around the wicket

Arun: "Back to that comment on which game will finish first. It looks like its going to be a tight race with Australia looking to finish as soon as possible." India need 17, Australia need 27.

7.35pm We're all set to resume. David Warner's come out to bat for Australia.

7.25pm Okay, people. The match will resume in 10 minutes, and no overs will be lost.

Sarthak Mondal: "The D/L par score at the end of 20 overs given Australia lose 9 wickets is 79.. They have already chased that!!!"

Priyath: "But remember wickets in hand affect the D/L score, so if Aus lose a few by the 20th that would change the score again..probably why they have to play the minimum number of overs to get a result." -- That's a very valid point, which I didn't initially consider. So maybe in the BBL game, Melbourne Stars had got past the five-over par score no matter how many wickets they'd lost. I don't think that's the case with Australia here.

AUSinCH: "Consider this bizarre scenario: what if Australia were 92/9 after 13.2 overs, chasing Scotland's 130. Rain halts play. Under D/L, if play were to restart, Australia would presumably have won already. But if the rain hadn't intervened and Scotland had picked up a wicket with their next ball..." -- I don't think 92 for 9 is a winning D/L score in a 130 chase, but let's go with the spirit of your argument, and say they were 125 for 9?

7.03pm Whoopsie. "Raining again," Brydon says. "Covers coming back on."

Gaurav: "Does anyone else feel that the D/L rule is ILLOGICAL in this situation. If you have already scored the maximum number of runs needed, then WHY would you need to play the minimum overs? You should be given the points for the daring spirit & entrepreneurship & initiative shown !" -- But they showed the daring spirit and entrepreneurship and initiative in a 50-over chase...

6.52pm Aaand the covers are coming off.

6.50pm Here's an update from the ground:

Umpires are out in the middle inspecting the ground. Blue sky overhead. Positive signs. #cwc15 #ausvsco

— Brydon Coverdale (@brydoncoverdale) March 14, 2015

Snigdha: "What happens if the match is called off?" -- If it's called off, they share points, because Australia haven't played 20 overs yet. But the funny thing is, suppose they're able to play again, and suppose they set Australia a 20-over D/L target, they probably will have already got to that target. But for Australia to win that way, the rain will need to stop and the umpires will need to deem the ground fit to play. Something similar happened in this BBL game between Perth Scorchers and Melbourne Stars in December 2012.

This is what the ESPNcricinfo report of that match has to say: "The match had to recommence by 7.52pm to ensure a five-over chase. The rain stopped, but the confusion was caused by the revised Duckworth/Lewis target, which was 5. In which case, only one ball was required to be bowled as the score had already been reached. The Scorchers argued the ground was unfit for play, but Hilton Cartwright bowled one ball without issue, the players shook hands, and the Stars walked off as winners by ten wickets. To compound matters, that extra ball was later expunged and the margin of victory changed from 10 wickets to 24 runs."

Joshua Z: "Why does everyone bag out Clarke's decisions? There's a reason why he sent himself and Watto out ahead of Warner and Maxwell, and it's that they badly need some game time. It's actually a good gamble. And it's not like they were stonewalling; everyone's strike rates have been 100+."

SAWAN: "Worst Captain for 2014 WC award goes to Clarke. He had Scotland eight down in 18 overs and still held back Starc till the 25th over.Those seven overs are going to hurt them a lot. Now they have batted 13.2 overs and Australia would have been home if Warner had opened and the BIG SHOW had come in at No. 3."

Sree: "Nothing against Clarke/Watson, but Maxwell/Faulkner were clearly the men for the situation. Clarke should not have taken on the rain gods, they are very powerful."

6.03pm And it's raining again. Fairly heavily. The players will have their supper break now. Stay tuned for further updates.

James Faulkner in at No. 4.

Dan: "Weather report - raining at my house now. Unfortunately I am several hundred, maybe thousand, km away from Tasmania."

Pawan Mathur: "There is a strong possibility that this match may end before the India-Zimbabwe match despite being starting at least three hours later on the same day. Will this be a first or can somebody recall similar instances?"