Afghanistan celebrated their first World Cup victory by recording a one-wicket triumph over Scotland with three balls to spare in a dramatic match in Dunedin.

It was a disappointing start for Scotland after they were put into bat, with Callum MacLeod (0), Hamish Gardiner (5) and Kyle Coetzer (25) all falling inside the opening 12 overs to leave them reeling on 40-3.

Matt Machan (31) and Preston Mommsen (23) steadied the ship with a partnership of 53, but Scotland's batsmen continued to waste starts as Afghanistan picked up wickets at regular intervals.

Some lower-order runs would be crucial as both Majid Haq (31) and Alasdair Evans (28) frustrated the bowlers to lead their side to 210 all out in 50 overs.

Opener Javed Ahmadi got the Afghanistan chase off to the perfect start with a run-a-ball 51 before becoming the first of Richie Berrington's four victims as his team slipped to 85-3.

Berrington was supported impressively by Evans and Josh Davey as Scotland took control to reduce their Pool A rivals to 97-7 in the 24th over.

Samiullah Shenwari offered stubborn resistance to keep Afghanistan in the game, and he reached his half-century shortly after Davey removed Dawlat Zadran (9).

It looked like Shenwari's fine knock would lead his side over the line, but he picked out Davey off the bowling of Haq after hitting three sixes earlier in the same over to depart on 96 with Afghanistan 19 runs short of their target.

However, the final-wicket partnership of Hamid Hassan (15*) and Shapoor Zadran (12*) batted sensibly to leave Afghanistan needing just five runs from the final over.

There would be one more twist as Machan missed a run-out attempt with Zadran short of his ground, and a boundary off the next ball started the celebrations for Afghanistan.