France finished their short tour of Holland with an encouraging six-wicket win over a Netherlands side containing three players who recently took part in the Intercontinental Cup.
In the first game, shortened to 35-overs a side because of rain, Netherlands A won by 20 runs after posting 158 for 8. But the result meant they strengthened their side for the second match
After a steady but slow start Netherlands were 112 for 0 after 30 overs. France came back through Jon Houghton (3 for 49) and Tahir Mohammed (4 for 23, including three wickets in an over) and Netherlands were bowled out for 178 with four overs to go.
A couple of steady partnerships and a solid 62 from opener Arun Ayyavooraju, aided by some lusty blows from Shahid Malik (35) and captain Waseem Bhatti (32*), saw France home with 10 overs to spare.
It seems that the standard of Dutch cricket is going down. Netherlands was one of the 3 associates to play the 1996 World Cup. In 1985, the Dutch lost to Zimbabwe in the Final of the ICC World Cup Qualifier. This helped Zimbabwe qualify for the 1987 World Cup. For 2007 World Cup, 5 associate nations were to be given a berth and Netherlands managed to get the last position. Their performance in the World Cup too was pathetic. The Team looked like a bunch of school boys. A few weeks ago, the Netherlands team had to face a defeat against Denmark and now the French team managed to beat the Netherlands-A side.
i totally disagree with vikram! They're doing bad simply because they've lost ryan ten doeschate,their star player who averages over 50 in both one day internationals as well as first class cricket because he's playing for essex and alexei kervezee who only 18 and is very talented and he's playing for worcestershire.
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