Scotland's Twenty20 World Cup campaign opened with defeat but certainly not disgrace as Pakistan eased their way to a 51-run victory in Durban yesterday.

A fine display in the field appeared to have put the Scots in with a chance of creating an upset against nervy opponents at the Kingsmead Oval.

However, having restricted Pakistan to 171-9, the Scottish batsmen undermined that effort by collapsing to 120 all out in their innings.

Only Fraser Watts managed to get the scoreboard ticking with the necessary urgency in a hard-hitting 46, the highest individual score of the match. However, the Greenock opener was given no meaningful support from the other end as the Scots at one stage lost four key wickets for just seven runs.

"We had to go for it from the start and at one stage we were looking good," said Watts. "But their spinners got the better of us and, to be fair, we haven't batted nearly as well as we should after a good performance in the field."

The early momentum had been built with Craig Wright at the heart of it, the former Scotland captain taking three wickets for 29 runs from his four overs, including that of dangerman Shahid Afridi.

The selectors had performed a U-turn on the morning of the match after watching New Zealand's seamers destroy Kenya on the same wicket. Wright's inclusion ensured heartache for Ross Lyons who was forced to watch from the sidelines just as he had at the main World Cup in the Caribbean.

However, while there was widespread sympathy for Lyons who had been one of the successes of the warm-up games, Wright made the most of his reprieve.

Afridi came to the wicket with Pakistan limping at 81 for four in the 13th over and threatened to change the course of the innings as he slog-swept his first ball for six.

That over from Majid Haq - which had begun with the wicket of captain Shoaib Malik - went for 23 with Afridi responsible for 19 of the runs.

But the Pakistan batsman, having scored 22 from just six balls, was not to last long as he clipped his next delivery to Haq at short-fine leg. Haq followed up to remove Younis Khan, who top-scored with 41, to leave Pakistan 116 for six.

Misbah-ul-Haq added 23 to get Pakistan up towards a more testing total before Dewald Nel took two wickets late on to finish with two for 25 and bowled Yasir Arafat for 17 with the last ball of the innings.

Arafat had been caught the ball before by Gavin Hamilton but the all-rounder could not prevent himself from stepping over the boundary rope.

The Scottish impetus was carried on by Watts with a flurry of boundaries.

However, Umar Gul then removed Ryan Watson and Nav Poonia before spinner Afridi ripped through the middle order, picking up the wickets of Hamilton, Neil McCallum, Dougie Brown and Colin Smith - all caught going for runs when a bit of composure was needed.

Watts then also fell to spin, miscuing Mo Hafeez to short third man, having struck an impressive nine fours and faced just 35 balls.

The rate of the demise was spectacular with the Scots having slumped from 53 for three to 79 for seven in the space of four overs before Gul returned late on to bowl Wright and Blain and leave Pakistan on the brink of success.

The Scots were eventually finished off for 120 in the final over as Mohammad Asif bowled Haq for 14.

Euan McIntyre, the Scotland team manager, afterwards defended the decision to drop Lyons in favour of Wright, and said: "It was a tough decision for Ross who thought he would be playing but I think Craig justified his inclusion.

"The lads did really well in the field but the pressure of needing quick runs proved too much for the batsmen and we just couldn't build partnerships. A little bit of our inexperience at this level was also evident."

The Scots will now be looking for a quick response and victory over India today if they are to have any chance of extending their stay and reaching the Super 8s.