Cricket World Cup 2015: Scotland skipper regrets England display

Scotland skipper Preston Mommsen scored 26 against England

The gap between Scotland and England is not as big as the 119-run World Cup defeat suggests, says the associate nation's captain Preston Mommsen.

Scotland have never beaten a Test-playing nation in any one-day match and were bowled out for 184 after England scored 303-8 in their 50 overs.

"I don't think it is that big," said Mommsen of the gap between the teams. "We're a better side than we showed.

"We couldn't quite put in a full performance, which is regrettable."

Mommsen also said he sensed some frailties in an England side that suffered heavy defeats in their opening two matches of the World Cup, against Australia and New Zealand.

Though openers Moeen Ali and Ian Bell shared 172 in 30 overs, England could only add another 131 runs in the final 20 overs for the loss of eight wickets.

"It showed once we get rid of Bell and Moeen that they were vulnerable in the middle," added batsman Mommsen.

"We knew we could keep taking wickets and we did that. From the platform they had, to restrict them to 303 gave us confidence."

England's one-day international appearance record holder Paul Collingwood is Scotland's assistant coach for the tournament and, after admitting it was "hard" for him to line-up against his country during the pre-match national anthems, he focused on his adopted side's performance.

"To win games of cricket in a World Cup you've got to have the majority of your players having their best day and unfortunately there just weren't enough right on top of their game," Collingwood told icc-cricket.com.

"But it's all a learning curve for us. A lot of this is new to the players. The emotion of these occasions, holding your nerve, all that kind of stuff is new so hopefully game by game we'll get better and better.

"The boys are still buzzing and still enjoying it and, of course, you're disappointed to lose. We're not here just to enjoy the World Cup, we're here to win games and we'll keep battling and keep trying to play the positive cricket we know we can and hopefully that will bring us a win."

Skipper Mommsen also identified areas for his side to improve when they meet Afghanistan in Dunedin on Thursday.

The two teams met twice in a tri-series in Dubai in January, winning one game apiece.

"It's critical to put the ball in the right areas and ask questions of the batters, especially when there's a bit of assistance," said the 27-year-old.

"Some of the dismissals were disappointing, we had more time than we thought in that chase. We were looking for that 100-run partnership and it wasn't there for us."

Preston Mommsen took catches to dismiss Eoin Morgan and Chris Woakes