Netherlands go down to Nepal despite spirited fight

Defending just 133 runs, the Netherlands nearly pulled off a win against Nepal. With 17 runs needed from the last over by Nepal, the Dutch were having the upper hand. Nepal's Karan DC however smashed a 6 of Shane Snater's first ball in the 20th over and then went on hitting another six, a four and a single to secure the win for Nepal.

Captain Pieter Seelaar stuck to pace in the power play and that decision paid off. Fred Klaassen, Paul van Meekeren and Brandon Glover bowled with great accuracy and didn't let the Nepalese batsmen settle, resulting in a score of 25-1 after 6. Roelof van der Merwe then turned the screw further with clever spin bowling while Colin Ackermann from the other end claimed a wicket due to a good running catch by Klaassen. With the desired run rate creeping up the Netherlands managed to take it to the last over, but it wasn't to be, Nepal 134/6 in 19.5.

van der Merwe 2-14/4
van Meekeren 1-19/4
Glover 1-23/4
Klaassen 1-29/4
Ackermann 1-9/1

Earlier in the morning the Netherlands batsmen again struggled to keep momentum after Max O'Dowd 43(43) and Tonny Staal 21(14) got them off to a good start. With the first 50 coming up in 5.3 and a score of 81-2 after 10, the Netherlands were looking to score 160+ runs. The last 10 overs only brought two boundaries though (1x4, 1x6) as the Dutch couldn't find the gaps and lost wickets regularly. Colin Ackermann 29(20) and Scott Edwards 16(13) reached double figures, but 133ao with 3 balls unused was below par.

Full scorecard

With two more matches in the 5-Nations T20I series and another two warm-up games to come in the UAE, there is still plenty of time to get used to the conditions and to get it right for the men in orange. They'll undoubtedly look to set things straight when they face Oman on Wednesday.