Scotland could have mental advantage

Scotland captain Preston Mommsen believes that his side has the psychological advantage heading into their World Cup Pool A clash with Afghanistan in Dunedin on Thursday.

Mommsen's positivity is because the last time the two teams met in an ODI, in January in Abu Dhabi, Scotland skittled out the Afghans for just 63 to seal emphatic win by 150 runs.

The Scotland skipper has however warned his team not to be complacent against a side that gave Sri Lanka a fright in their last match, with the Afghan pace bowlers causing damage, reducing the 1996 champions to 50 for four at one stage.

Mommsen said: "We take a huge amount of confidence from that game in Abu Dhabi, huge psychological advantage, I think. We had a clear, clear strategy and tactic against them, and I'm pretty sure that we'll resort to the same formula tomorrow.

"We've played a lot of cricket against them in recent times, and we know that they do have good ammunition in their pace attack. We expect them to use their skills.

"It is a fresh wicket, so we'll have to play pretty tight cricket up front and negotiate that new ball, and hopefully get them back in their second and third spells and try and score then. But they are a very handy attack, and we'll respect that."