Mommsen: Pressure is huge for small sides

2015 World Cup

Scotland captain Preston Mommsen was disappointed by the margin of defeat against England in Christchurch on Monday, but hoped they'd be able to take some valuable lessons into the match against Afghanistan.

England won by 119 runs after scoring 303/8, which saw Moeen Ali and Ian Bell made 172 for the first wicket. Josh Davey ended up with four wickets though. Scotland were then all out for 184, with Kyle Coetzer recording a futile 71.

Scotland have thus still not won a World Cup match in their history, and will hope that they'll be able to take some pointers into the clash against fellow Associates Afghanistan, which will be a much tighter affair.

Mommsen, who made 26 himself, said: "We won the toss and we would have liked a few more early wickets. We pulled them back nicely but didn't get going in the chase, we didn't quite hit our areas but credit to our bowlers for bouncing back in the death.

"We thought we were in with a shot and needed a partnership upfront but didn't get one that we needed. Joshy did great work at the death and Kyle batted beautifully there.

"The New Zealand game was a tough first World Cup match for a lot of boys. Today there were some lessons for us and hopefully we'll be better when we come up against Afghanistan.

"This is a huge step up from county to international – more pressure, huge crowds, there's more at stake."

Scotland and the Afghans clash on Thursday in Dunedin.

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