SCOTLAND BEGIN WORLD CUP PREPARATIONS WITH DEFEAT TO AFGHANISTAN

Scotland suffered a 61-run defeat to Afghanistan in the first of two warm-up fixtures ahead of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

Darwish Rasooli's 84 helped propel Afghanistan to 184-6 in Bangalore, supported by Ibrahim Zadran (36) and Mohammad Nabi (34) - the 82 run partnership between Rasooli and Zadran driving their side to an imposing total.

Brad Wheal (2-57) and Mark Watt (2-32) had struck early to reduce Afghanistan to 20-2 before Rasooli and Zadran combined, the former retiring out following his superb 46-ball 84 - whilst Brad Currie was impressive with the ball for Scotland, taking 1-19 from his four overs.

In reply, a number of Scotland batters got starts as Michael Jones (21), Brandon McMullen (20) and Matthew Cross (21) all reached 20 - but Afghanistan struck regularly to restrict the Scots, Azmatullah Omarzai impressing with 3-14 as Scotland were bowled out for 123.

Michael Jones said: "It was good to get out there and dust off the cobwebs. A lot of us haven't played cricket for a while, and we know how completely different going from indoor training to thrust into a proper game situation, which you can't replicate inside.

"We've got to make the most of this next week leading up to our opening game, and there's no better way to do it than playing a really quality side in Afghanistan. We know how strong they are, but it's better to test ourselves now and try and be as prepared as we can for Saturday.

"It's the first time I've batted outdoors since September, which was a red ball County Championship game, so that's not ideal, but you can make big strides quickly with this game. As we all know, it's mentally challenging, alongside everything else, so the quicker we can get our heads around being prepared for the tournament the better, and playing games is the best way to do that."

Scotland will face Namibia on Wednesday morning (0730 GMT) in their final warm-up fixture ahead of Saturday's tournament opener against the West Indies.