ICC Intercontinental Cup and Shield

NETHERLANDS v BERMUDA With Bermuda’s facilities not meeting the ICC’s requirements for first-class cricket and the Dutch requesting to play their matches outside of the English county season, to ensure the availability of players, this match was played on neutral territory though, theoretically, it was a home game for The Netherlands. Having been plagued by bad weather in their previous match in Nairobi, Bermuda’s misfortune with rain seemed set to continue. Some 9.9 mm had fallen over the four days prior to the start but excellent work by the groundstaff enabled play to begin only one hour late on the first day at 11.00 am, after it was feared the night before that no play would be possible at all. The Dutch chose to bat first and lost Bas Zuiderent to Saleem Mukuddem’s first ball of the day. Runs were hard to come by as Kevin Hurdle bowled six maidens in his opening spell of 11 overs and Mukuddem bowled four in his nine-over spell. Tom de Grooth and Ryan ten Doeschate survived, however, and took the Dutch to 83 for one at lunch. Rain delayed the restart until 3.00 pm but, after only three more overs, bad light caused the umpires to propose an early tea break, during which further rain fell. When play resumed, conditions were still damp and not ideal for the bowlers. The Dutch raised the run-rate, taking 40 off five overs with ten Doeschate striking the ball to boundaries all round the ground; they took their partnership to 189 before de Grooth top-edged Mukuddem to mid off. Before the close, ten Doeschate’s magnificent display came to an end, after just over five and a half hours, when he edged Dwayne Leverock to give Dean Minors an easy running catch behind the stumps. His 138 runs came at a strike rate of 70.4 with 49% in boundaries. Bermuda had the better of the morning session on the second day with Leverock and Rodney Trott extracting turn from the pitch. They took four wickets before lunch by which time only 78 runs had been added in the two and a half hours. Billy Stelling and Jeroen Smits added 42 for the eighth wicket either side of the interval and Mohammad Kashif helped Smits in an entertaining last-wicket stand of 26. Nevertheless, the Dutch lost their last seven wickets for 123 runs which undid much of the work of their batsmen on the first day. Bermuda began their reply strongly with an opening stand of 105 which included 44 from the first seven overs. The Dutch bowling was inconsistent, economical spells interspersed with more wayward deliveries. Peter Borren conceded only 17 runs from a ten-over spell and the two spinners, Kashif and Pieter Seelaar, managed to slow the run-rate. Although Kwame Tucker and Irving Romaine were removed after tea, Bermuda ended only 250 runs behind with eight wickets in hand, having held the initiative for most of the day. The morning session of the third day saw the advantage return to The Netherlands as they took four wickets, ten Doeschate bowling particularly tightly and removing Steven Outerbridge and Clay Smith, the latter receiving an official reprimand for showing dissent at the leg-before decision. That was the end of Dutch success for the day as David Hemp and Mukuddem survived until lunch and then took the bowling apart in the afternoon. Hemp played particularly elegantly, his cover-driving being outstanding, as he reached his century in 206 minutes off 159 balls. Mukuddem provided excellent support, thumping anything loose to the boundary. The Dutch were handicapped by the loss of Stelling, who left the field feeling unwell after bowling only two overs. The other bowlers all tried hard but could not break through. Relief finally came when rain stopped play thirteen overs before the day’s end, by which time the partnership had reached 213 and Bermuda had gained the points for first-innings lead. The partnership added only six runs on the last morning before Mukuddem was adjudged caught behind off the leg spin of Daan van Bunge. Leverock then kept Hemp company until after lunch, the pair adding 132 runs and Leverock reaching his first half-century. By this time it was clear that Bermuda were just going to continue batting rather than score quick runs, declare and attempt to bowl the Dutch out. As a result, the last day was somewhat tedious. Bermuda took their score to 620, a record for the competition, and Hemp ended undefeated on 247, the highest individual score in the competition. He batted eight and three-quarter hours and achieved a strike rate of 66.2. Once the Dutch batted again, the only interest was whether ten Doeschate could score a second century in the match. He and Zuiderent provided some entertaining batting, ten Doeschate taking 19 from one over by Trott and Zuiderent reaching his half-century with two straight drives for six. Ten Doeschate reached his hundred in the penultimate over before being given out leg-before when well down the wicket to a ball from Romaine, leaving Alexei Kervezee to play out the remaining two balls of the match. 100 ICC Intercontinental Cup 2006-07