Scotland batting simply not good enough

Bangaladesh 278 for 6 (Ahmed 52, Mortaza 51*) beat Scotland 132 (Razzak 4-23) by 146 runs
Scorecard

Dougie Brown falls to Mashrafe Mortaza for a second-ball duck © AFP

Bangladesh had few problems in disposing of Scotland for the second time in three days, but another crushing defeat at Dhaka - the margin was 146 runs - left the Scots with some major headaches as the World Cup looms.

Once again, Scotland's batting let them down, and while several players got starts, none were able to go on and make a more substantial contribution. In the two games of this brief series eight batsmen passed 20 and yet none scored more than 30. With the exception of Zimbabwe, Bangladesh are the weakest of the Full Member countries, but the ease with which they brushed aside the Scots only underlined that the gulf between the top sides and the Associates remains a wide as ever.

Bangladesh did what they needed to do well. With the exception of Mushfiqur Rahim, their top eight all made decent contributions, but it was the unbeaten seventh-wicket stand of 79 between Mashrafe Mortaza and Mohammad Ashraful which sunk Scotland who until then had kept things pretty much under wraps. Mortaza bludgeoned 51 not out from 28 balls, an onslaught which included five sixes.

Scotland needed a good start; instead, they lost Navdeep Poonia - his second duck on the trot - and Dougie Brown in Mortaza's first over and from 0 for 2 there was no way back. There was a recovery of sorts, but as was the case on Friday, Scotland's middle order offered nothing and Abdur Razzak benefited with four wickets.

And it was a wretched match for Craig Wright, their captain, who was making a record 154th appearance in Scotland colours. Not only did his side slide to defeat but he also made a three-ball duck. "We came here to be competitive," he said, "but unfortunately we could not."

Some resistance late on enabled Scotland to post three figures, but that cannot hide the fact that their batting is too brittle. As for Bangladesh, their eighth successive one-day victory can only further boost the suspicion that there is real room for optimism in 2007.