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The pieces are beginning to come together for World Cup-bound Scotland despite the rain which has affected both of their warm-up games to date.

All the front-line bowlers had a good run at Chester-le-Street and, once they had come to terms with the white ball - a new experience for them - all performed reasonably well. And there were the encouraging innings from Mike Smith, Gavin Hamilton and James Brinkley which took them so close to victory, to add to the plus factors.

Monday's truncated outing at Old Trafford also had its good points with Iain Philip and Mike Allingham both making half-centuries and George Salmond, after his failure against Durham, getting valuable time in the middle.

However, there is concern about the form of batsman Bruce Patterson, who has scored nine runs in two innings, and today's final 50-over warm-up against Yorkshire at Scarborough could see a change at the top of the order with Mike Smith, if he has recovered from a back injury, opening and Allingham retaining his place at No 3.

Scotland coach Jim Love, who knows the Scarborough pitch well from his Yorkshire days, said: ``Bruce is not in good form and Michael [Allingham] has come in at very short notice and put pressure on the other batsmen.''