Scotland lose to Netherlands on long-awaited return to one-day international action
Scotland suffer defeat in first international since December 2019 as Netherlands emerge 14-run winners in rain-affected first ODI in Rotterdam; home batsman Max O'Dowd scores third half-century in as many games as Dutch move 1-0 up in two-match series
Wednesday 19 May 2021 21:02, UK
Scotland suffered defeat in their first cricket international since December 2019 as they went down to Netherland by 14 runs in the first of two ODIs in Rotterdam.
Scotland - who last played an ODI against UAE over 500 days ago - could only manage 149-8 chasing 164 for victory in a game reduced to 33 overs a side after a rain delay.
Richie Berrington top-scored with 41 and George Munsey struck 27 but the visitors were contained by the Netherlands, including Vivian Kingma (3-21) and ex-Somerset seamer Paul van Meekeren (2-28).
Kingma removed three of the top four - Berrington one of his scalps - while Van Meekeren's victims included Calum MacLeod, who was bowled for 14.
Netherlands - who will now be looking to wrap up a series win in the second and final game at the same venue on Thursday - carded 163-8 having been 98-6, with Max O'Dowd scoring 82 from 102 balls.
New Zealand-born O'Dowd has now struck fifties in each of his three one-day internationals, having notched an unbeaten 86 and then 59 in against Zimbabwe in June 2019.
Netherlands managed 62 from their final eight overs with O'Dowd helped by a cameo from No 8 Logan van Beek (24 off 21) after the middle-order had been shredded by Gavin Main (2-16) and Mark Watt (2-28).
