SCOTLAND's World Cup preparations suffered a blow yesterday when they fell to a heavy defeat in the desert.
Grant Bradburn's side were looking for a morale-boosting win against Pool A rivals Afghanistan in the opening match of the ICC Associate Tri-Series in Dubai.
Instead the Afghans maintained their recent dominance by cruising to an eight-wicket success - their third win in a row against the Scots. It is a chastening thought that Andy Moles' fearless team is the one Scotland probably have the best chance of beating if they are to secure a maiden World Cup win next month.
There will be some consolation, though, that conditions were in favour of Afghanistan in what was essentially a home match while Scotland elected to leave out three potentially key bowlers in new-ball pair Ali Evans and Iain Wardlaw along with spinner and leading ODI wicket-taker Majid Haq.
All three will feature as this tournament unfolds but Scotland are now in a familiar position of playing catch-up, a role that suited Afghanistan perfectly yesterday as they emphasised their superiority on the day by reaching their target of 239 with forty-two deliveries to spare. Hard-hitting opener Javed Ahmadi led the way with nine boundaries and a maximum in his 74 and his stand of 121 with Usman Ghani (48) for the first wicket had Scotland toiling.
Both batsmen eventually fell to Richie Berrington but Nasir Jamal became the second Afghan to reach a half-century (52no) while Afsar Zazai also made it look easy with 48no. Conditions had been much tougher for Scotland when they lost the toss and were sent in to bat after a lengthy delay for thick fog and heavy dew.
It got worse when they lost Calum MacLeod in the first over and it was left to Hamish Gardiner to fight a near-lone battle. The Carlton batsman notched his highest ODI score with a composed 96 which included fourteen boundaries, his second consecutive half-century at this level following his 89 against Ireland last September.
However, Gardiner lacked sustained support, meaning that substantial partnerships eluded Scotland. Several of his colleagues made starts but none went beyond Matthew Cross's 28 while skipper Preston Mommsen fell for a single and Berrington just 5. Dawlat Zadran was the pick of the Afghan bowlers with 3-41 while Mirwais Ashraf's nagging line and length claimed 2-39.
Gardiner, denied a century for a second time, believes Scotland must emulate the positivity demonstrated by Afghanistan's batsmen. He said: "We're going to have to be quick learners with only four games on this tour and I think we can take a lot out of how they went about the chase. "They played with freedom and hopefully we can show the same confidence in the remainder of the tournament. The ball was nipping around early on and credit to their bowlers for putting the ball in good areas. Unfortunately for us we couldn't get the one big partnership that we needed to give us the platform for the back end of our innings.
"I was disappointed not to see it through to three figures and to the end of our innings but I'm sure a century is not too far away." Bradburn admitted: "We were rusty and looked like a team that hasn't played for seven weeks which is the case. We need to get grass time into our legs and we weren't as accurate in our execution as we needed to be - particularly with the ball - to get over the line.
"Conditions were strange early on and it was certainly bowler friendly. We wanted to bat second but you can't do anything about the toss."
The sides meet again on Wednesday in a day/night clash in Abu Dhabi while the Scots must lift themselves for Monday's meeting with Ireland, also under the Abu Dhabi lights. "We know we'll be better for the run out today," added Bradburn.
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