Netherlands A beat Italy with playful ease

After the experiment with another opening pair against Spain on Wednesday night, Clayton Floyd (18) and Musa Ahmad (13) opened the batting again on Thursday morning against Italy. However, mainly due to good bowling from the Italians, the start was uncharacteristically slow with only twenty runs off the first two overs. Shortly thereafter, both openers were caught in the outfield. Umar Gujjar in particular (2-12) bowled strong outswingers that troubled the Dutch.

Recovery had to come from Braat and Klein. The latter was dropped off a skier, but gave the same fielder a second chance on the very next ball: four wickets down. Braat, the man of the sublime half century on Wednesday, was also in form this Thursday with a fantastic captain's knock of 39 runs off seventeen deliveries. He was well supported by Sikander Zulfiqar, who made 28 runs off ten balls. The Netherlands finished on 121/6.

Italy innings

Viv Kingma often takes one or even two wickets in his first. He did not disappoint; Zain Naqvi saw a big outside edge end up in the hands of Udit Nashier on third man. Two balls later, captain Baljit Singh was dismissed.

Olivier Elenbaas and Clayton Floyd copied this feat by dismissing two overly eager Italians in their first overs. Italy were on 27/6 after four overs and had no chance of a win. Despite an expensive final over by Elenbaas which went for 26 runs (Gujjar 52 not out off 23 balls), Italy (100/9) did not get close. Kingma took 2-6, Elenbaas 2-36 and Floyd 3-9.

Photo: European Cricket / Diana Oros