With four balls left of their run chase, Afghanistan's number eleven Shapoor Zadran nudged a ball into the legside from Iain Wardlaw.

In his desperation to edge Afghanistan closer to the four more runs they needed for victory, Zadran attempted to run when no opportunity to score existed. By the time he realised his error and set back, Matt Machan had the stumps in his sights. 5765 days of waiting for Scotland's first World Cup win would be ended if his underarm throw hit. Instead, Machan missed by a couple of inches.

The very next ball, Wardlaw produced a similar delivery to Zadran, only one that offered him more room to free his trunk-like arms. Zadran did so, flicking the ball past short fine leg. And so Afghanistan, rather than Scotland, became the 16th nation to win a match in the Cricket World Cup. Scotland's wait continues. Some will wonder if it will ever end.

To see Preston Mommsen front up to the media minutes after Machan's miss was to see a man distraught. Mommsen may still possess a Durban twang to his accent, but he is a man who oozes palpable commitment to the Scotland side he leads. Since first assuming the role in the World Cup Qualifiers at the start of 2014, Mommsen has established himself as a deeply admirable leader.

A victory in the World Cup would have been fitting reward. As it is, Mommsen is left to reflect on how Afghanistan recovered from the wreckage of 97-7 to mount a successful heist of the 211 they needed to win.

"I look back on that game, and we didn't play our best cricket, but it's still a game that we should have won," he reflected. "Both with the bat and with the ball we got into winning positions, and regrettably now in the first innings or the second innings we could have delivered the killer punch."

For Afghanistan it was, as Mommsen said, "a nice toss to win" - especially because, in Shapoor, Dawlat Zadran and Hamid Hassan, Afghanistan possess fast bowling riches the envy of some Test-playing nations.

That much was evident from the zest with which Afghanistan bowled in reducing Scotland to 40-3. Calum MacLeod has a talismanic quality but the flip side of that is that, when his form is as wretched as this, it has a disproportionate impact upon the side.

There is no denying MacLeod's capacity to be explosive, but his 360-degree power is not much use while he seems loathe to give himself any chance to build an innings. After charging James Anderson against England, MacLeod slapped Dawlat straight to backward point; he has scored only four runs so far this World Cup. Add in his terrible form in the associate tri-series in the UAE last month, and MacLeod has made only nine runs from his last six ODI innings, including four ducks. Scotland will be loathe to drop him, and might wish that there was another readymade option as opener in the squad, allowing MacLeod to drop down the order.

One under-performing top order player is bad enough, but Scotland have two to contend with. Hamish Gardiner, whose innings-building capacity from number three was such a feature of Scotland in 2014, appears almost as lacking in form as MacLeod. Here he scratched around for 20 balls until falling lbw to Hamid. Gardiner has only mustered 31 runs in his last six innings in all cricket. Allied to MacLeod's form, it means that Scotland are effectively playing with nine men.

Yet despite such a shaky start, Matt Machan, Scotland's classiest player, added a half-century stand of increasing assurance with Mommsen. While cruising along at more than a run a ball, Machan felt the need to back away and attempt to smear Mohammad Nabi's offspin through the covers. And Machan was far from the only batsman culpable: six batsmen were dismissed between 23 and 31. Having proved they could handle the Afghan bowling, none even got close to a match-defining innings. It fell to Ali Evans and Majid Haq to add 62 runs - sensible batting mixed with the occasional merry swipe - to lift Scotland from the precipice of 144-8 and help them clear 200 runs for the first time in their 11th World Cup match.

Still, few thought it would be enough as Afghanistan cruised to 85-2. But, having witnessed an Afghan collapse of 25-10 in Abu Dhani last month, Scotland know how prone Afghanistan can be to self-destruction. Together the medium pace of Jose Davey and Richard Berrington combined to bring about a collapse of 5-12. In a harum-scarum match, it felt as if Afghanistan lacked the capacity to haul themselves back into the game, but after taking 90 balls over his first 30 runs, Samiullah Shenwari metamorphosed into a brutal hitter by the end of a 147-ball stay that merited Afghanistan's first World Cup victory, and deserved their first World Cup hundred too.

But even in this outstanding display, there was Scottish regret. While Scotland's fielding was significantly better than Afghanisan's, Majid Haq had missed a regulation slip chance when Shenwari had made 20. Had he held on, painful reflection could have been averted for Mommsen and his team. To Scotland, Dunedin will no longer feel like the Edinburgh of the South, but a very long 12,000 miles away from home.