Battling Scotland come up short against England as World Cup hopes suffer real damage

Owen Dawkins’ side went into the contest with burgeoning confidence following their win over Italy but gave away too many cheap wickets in their batting display on their way to a meagre total of 152.

Richie Berrington and Tom Bruce offered promise with a 50-run partnership but, again, the lower order failed to offer sufficient support to put Scotland up against it.

That left England in the box seat and, although a few early wickets offered fleeing promise, they chased down the target with 10 balls remaining thanks mainly to a fine half-century from Tom Banton.

The defeat all but ends Scotland’s chances of making the Super Eight phase ahead of their final outing against Nepal on Tuesday.

Captain Berrington said: “Although we were a few runs short with the bat, we still had that belief that, if we went out there and executed our best skills, we could put England under pressure. I think we showed that which is why this one hurts quite a lot. But I was proud of the fight we showed in that second innings.

“We’ve loved our time in Kolkata with three games here – it feels like our Indian home. We’ll head to Mumbai now and look forward to our last game against Nepal.”

Scotland were sent into bat and a loose shot from George Munsey saw the opening partnership broken with just 18 on the board. When Brandon McMullen then followed two balls later, Scotland already looked up against it. Michael Jones took on the run-gathering baton but misjudged a slower ball and was caught to leave Scotland struggling on 42/3.

It was left again to Berrington and Bruce to try to turbo-charge Scotland’s innings, just like they did against the West Indies, reaching 90/3 at the halfway stage. Just as a promising partnership reached 71, Bruce didn’t get enough on a slog sweep to become the latest player caught in the deep.

Scotland needed Berrington to anchor the rest of the innings but the captain fell just three balls later, one short of what would have been a vital half-century. The tail failed to offer much in the way of resistance beyond a late flurry from Olly Davidson as England worked through the lower order to leave Scotland all out for 152.

They did gain some early hope when Phil Salt fell in just the third ball of the reply, with Jos Buttler then dismissed in the second over to a smart McMullan catch to leave England on 13/2. That shifted the onus on Jacob Bethell and Banton to drive England’s innings and, after a slow start, the pair put on a 50 partnership before Bethell was dismissed by Davidson.

Harry Brook then went cheaply to leave England four down but, with Banton in imperious form on his way to 63 not out, they quickly extinguished any lingering Scottish hope.