Scotland captain Preston Mommsen was frustrated by the poor start his side made in their Cricket World Cup defeat to England on Monday.

The associate nation were unable to pile further misery on Eoin Morgan's team, who had begun their campaign with two thumping losses at the hands of co-hosts Australia and New Zealand, as England eased to a 119-run victory in Christchurch.

Mommsen won the toss and opted to field but Scotland did not make a breakthrough until the 31st over as England's opening batsmen Moeen Ali (128) and Ian Bell (54) prospered.

England were unable to take full advantage of an opening stand of 172 and faltered somewhat on their way to a total of 303-8.

However, that total proved well beyond the reach of Scotland, with Kyle Coetzer (71) the only batsman to post a significant score as the underdogs were dismissed for 184.

In his post-match press conference, Mommsen said: "I think we're a better side than what we showed there today. Having won the toss, we're very disappointed with the start we had.

"I think with the ball, especially when there's a bit of assistance, it's critical in any format really to make sure we're putting the ball in the right areas, asking the right questions of the batters.

"We're playing against some quality batters there, and to give them an easy start, it's difficult to pull it back, and we saw that."

Mommsen could at least take some positives from the encounter.

"Second half of our innings [with the ball] I thought we did brilliantly, to restrict them to only 300 with the platform they had and the batters they had to come," he added.

"We were pretty confident we were in with a shout. Unfortunately with the bat we just couldn't quite get going.

"I thought Kyle batted beautifully but [there was] not enough support and not a big enough platform there to have a proper shot at that chase."