Bangladesh cruise to seven-wicket victory against Scotland

BRIDGETOWN: Bangladesh sent Scotland spinning to a seven-wicket defeat in a World Cup warm-up here on Thursday to make it two wins out of two after their stunning dismissal of New Zealand.

Scotland made a paltry 152-9 off their 50 overs at the 3Ws Oval before Bangladesh stormed to victory with the best part of 16 overs left thanks to an unbeaten 57 from skipper Habibul Bashar.

Seamers John Blain and Paul Hoffman dismissed Bangladesh openers Tamim Iqbal (7) and the highly-rated Shahriar Nafees (O) respectively but Habibul and Saqibul Hasan (45) laid the groundwork for the Asian side.

Saqibul fell to a catch by Neil McCallum off Dougie Brown with the total at 108 leaving his skipper and Mohammad Ashraful (23 not out) to see Bangladesh to a comfortable win.

Habibul's 57 was made off 76 balls and featured five fours.

Scotland had made a solid start to their innings reaching 73-2 with Navdeep Poonia (32) and Fraser Watts (28) showing some form.

But both were undone by slow left-armers Abdur Razzak (3-25) and Mohammad Rafique (2-16).

It was the second match in succession in which Razzak had caught the eye after he snared four wickets in the two-wicket win over New Zealand on Tuesday.

Bangladesh now head to Trinidad for their Group B matches against India, Sri Lanka and Bermuda while Scotland go to St Kitts for Group A games against defending champions Australia, South Africa and the Netherlands.