Cricket: Netherlands take win for seventh

The Netherlands batsman Stephan Myburgh strikes the ball away during his innings of 36 against Canada at the Bay Oval. Photo/Andrew Warner

The Netherlands provided some comfort for their supporters, when they outclassed Canada in the battle for seventh place in the ICC World Cricket Cup Qualifier 2014, played at the Bay Oval at Mount Maunganui yesterday.

Canada won the toss and elected to bat and made a solid start before losing Nitish Kumar for 22, to have 55 runs on the board. Raza-ur-Reham anchored his side's innings with a classy 88, with Canada at 187/7 with five overs remaining in their turn at bat.

Two run-outs late in the Canadian innings took its toll as they were removed for 210.

Michael Rippon bowled with real enthusiasm to grab four Canadian wickets at a cost of 37 runs. The Netherlands were determined to erase the memories of their failure to progress to the Super Six in style and produced a batting blitzkrieg, to cruise to an eight wicket win in the 36th over.

An opening partnership between Eric Szwarczynski and Stephan Myburgh (36) produced 81 runs, with Szwarczynski taking his side to victory with an unbeaten 75.

Skipper Peter Borren was there at the end blasting an undefeated 61 from just 34 balls.

The Netherlands and Canada must now wait for an ICC review of the ICC tournament structures, before plotting their pathways to another ICC CWC campaign.

Nepal also finished their CWCQ14 campaign in style and avoided the wooden spoon, as the crushed Uganda in the playoff for ninth place. Nepal took first use of the batting strip on the Bay Oval second ground and were quickly off the mark before the Ugandan bowler's struck back. At 99/4 the first innings was evenly poised, before a 91 run partnership put Nepal in the box seat. Prithu Baskola struck a chance-less 59, before he was forced from the field by injury and could only watch as his team were removed for 240, with two balls remaining in their innings. The Nepalese bowlers took no prisoners, as they ripped the Ugandan batting apart, rolling the African nation for just 80. The Ugandan top score of 19 from Richard Okra told the tale of the lack of substantial partnerships. Sagar Pun returned 3/18, with Sompal Kami and Shakti Gauchan each taking brace of wickets.

CWCQ PLAYOFFS

Seventh Place: Canada 210 (Raza-ur-Reham 88, Ruvinder Gunasekera 54, Nitish Kumar 22; Michael Rippon 4/37, Ashan Malik 2/21, Pieter Seelaar 2/22) lost to The Netherlands 212/2 (Eric Szwarczynski 75no, Peter Borren 61no, Stephan Myburgh 36, Wesley Barresi 28).

Ninth Place: Nepal 240 (Prithu Baskola 59 retired hurt, Shared Vesqwkar 41, Binod Bhandari 35, Para Khada 30; Charles Waiswa 3/55, Davis Karashani 2/23, Faruk Ochimi 2/58) defeated Uganda 80 (Sagar Pun 3/18, Sompal Kami 2/10, Shakti Gauchan 2/16).