IT WAS billed as the best chance they have ever had, and might ever have. Perhaps that will prove true. Perhaps Scotland will never defeat England in a meaningful cricket match. But this is not an easy thing to do.

Admittedly, Australia have refuted this statement at the 2015 World Cup. So have New Zealand. But those are teams that have been embarrassing England at World Cups for years. Their players have grown up considering victories over England in one-day cricket to be as commonplace as fires in the bush. Scotland's players have grown up watching England losing matches at World Cups and wondering if they would ever get the chance to play for such a thing.

It is not as easy as it looks. England are so habitually disappointing in World Cups that you wonder why their early exit always results in a Government inquiry. But when you consider that they are picking their team from a circuit of 17 professional counties where even Scotland's best players have struggled to stay in employment, a victory for the northerners in this maiden neighbourly engagement would have been a very seismic event indeed.

England were stronger, faster, harder, even hungrier. Moeen Ali played extraordinary shots that left every blade of grass on Hagley Oval scorched. Ian Bell could afford to play the role of foil. Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler batted at the end with innovation and power. Big Steven Finn was mean and all of England's players looked lean, so much so that they flung themselves into advertising boards to save singles.

Scotland did okay at times. Their opponents were 201 for one wicket at one stage but the Scots crept back into the game by preying on the self-doubt England had been carrying from previous beatings. Ali Evans and Majid Haq bowled with discipline. There were ruthless dismissals by Matthew Cross, the wicket-keeper, and Josh Davey, who started the innings with a flurry of wides and ended it with a flurry of wickets. Coetzer, recognising that he was standing on a batting paradise, then drove like he was at the wheel of a Lamborghini. He chanced his arm, too, but Scotland's total was all the higher for it. Unfortunately it wasn't high enough, not even high enough to usurp their previous World Cup record - a modest 186.

That really should be rectified this week against Afghanistan. Scotland have struggled to beat them in the past, even been bullied, but their young players have grown up a lot. In comparison they have a privileged cricketing background and they should exert this advantage. But the Afghans are talented and tough - just ask Sri Lanka.

The Scots will not be disheartened. They are a gifted batting side and their batsmen know they can score fifties at this World Cup. Three of them already have. If not for nerves, if not for Moeen Ali, if not for Eoin Morgan, they might have beaten England in Christchurch. But nobody has had the audacity to claim that the gap between the two nations is narrowing.

If they are ever to beat England at the World Cup, it will take a revision of the ICC's entry policy, for a start. This 119-run defeat does not endorse the decision to cut the quota from 14 to 10 teams in 2019. It is important to point out that one of the secrets to England's victory was respecting their opponents in every stroke and delivery.

Given a little more practice, Scotland might do better in future when they play England at the World Cup again. But the realities of sporting commerce dictate that the word “if” must supplant “when” in that sentence. Scottish rugby fans have the chance to analyse defeats to England this every 12 months. Cricket fans don't even know when their team will next lose to an English county.

SCORECARD