ICC Intercontinental Cup and Shield

NETHERLANDS v SCOTLAND Scotland began their defence of the ICC Intercontinental Cup by deciding to bat first under cool, cloudy and damp conditions. Steven Knox and Fraser Watts began steadily taking the score to 42 before both were dismissed in quick succession, edging Edgar Schiferli to the wicketkeeper. The Dutch opening bowlers exploited the atmosphere to the full and were often unable to control the movement of the ball, which resulted in a large number of wides being bowled. Ryan ten Doeschate trapped Cedric English in front of the stumps after which Ryan Watson and Douglas Lockhart staged a recovery. With the score at 116 for three, the innings seemed evenly poised but the Dutch then took four wickets, whilst only 22 runs were added. Qasim Sheikh failed to score, another leg-before victim for ten Doeschate, and Jeroen Smits, standing up to the wicket to fast-medium Sebastian Gokke, effected a superb stumping to remove Lockhart. With Watson and captain, Colin Wright, also failing, it looked as though Scotland would capitulate but Ian Stanger rescued the situation with his first first-class half-century. He received good support from Gregor Maiden and Gordon Goudie, each of whom survived more than 40 balls, and from Dewald Nel who lasted 24 balls without scoring before Stanger surprisingly fell to the leg spin of Daan van Bunge, giving Smits his fourth victim of the innings in an excellent display of wicketkeeping. Stanger batted for 131 minutes and achieved a strike-rate of 51.5 even though only eight of his 97 runs came in boundaries. Having watched Scotland’s batsmen struggle to score all day, Maurits van Nierop decided that aggression was a better approach. When play was suspended for rain and bad light, his not out 24 had been made at a strike rate of 68.5. In contrast, Tom de Grooth preferred defence; his strike rate was only 10.0. Although Scotland had started favourites for the match, the Dutch bowling and the weather conditions gave The Netherlands the better of the first day. Neither side gained any benefit from the weather on the remaining two days when it rained most of the time. On the occasions when it did stop, it was impossible to play because the outfield was waterlogged. Eventually, the match was abandoned. With neither side able to obtain many points, the chances of either progressing to the semi-finals were reduced. A convincing victory over Ireland was now essential unless the remaining matches in the Europe Group were to be similarly affected by rain. 62 ICC Intercontinental Cup 2005