Scotland fell to a 14-run defeat at the hands of the Netherlands as they played their first ODI in over 500 days in Rotterdam.
The Scotland team showed flashes of potential during the rain-delayed match, but also suffered from a lack of match practice after 18 months away from the international scene.
The Dutch won the toss and elected to bat when the match finally got underway three hours late, reaching 163-8 off 33 overs. Scotland spinner Mark Watt hit a major milestone in the innings taking 2-27 in his six-over spell to reach 100 wickets for Scotland.
The Scots lost opening batters Matthew Cross (1) and Kyle Coetzer (9) early in their innings, but recovered as all rounder Richie Berrington formed a solid 69-run partnership with George Munsey before both fell in quick succession with 64 runs still left to chase down, leaving the team in an uphill battle to overhaul the Dutch total.
It will be a quick turnaround for the Scotland team as the second match against the Netherlands has been moved forward by 24 hours to avoid forecast rain on Friday.
Head Coach Shane Burger is confident that the team has learned enough from today’s match to put in an improved performance: “It’s terrific to be back playing international cricket. It’s been a long time waiting and we certainly prepared well, but when those pressure moments hit and you get into the heat of the battle in international cricket that’s where we fell short and I think given more time and opportunities for the guys to shake a bit of the rust we’ll be back to winning ways.
“There were some real positives to take from today and we’ll certainly hold onto those for tomorrow and hope that we can learn from a couple of the errors that we made today as well. Not a long time to turn around but we’ll learn from our mistakes and hopefully put in a better performance tomorrow.”
On reaching his 100 international wickets Mark Watt said: “It’s an absolute privilege and honour to wear the badge on my chest and represent my country. I’m ecstatic to reach 100 wickets and hoping to notch up another ton in the years to come.”
The full scorecard is available here.
Match 2 of the series, which starts at 10am UK time, will be livestreamed on the KNCB YouTube channel with regular updates on the Cricket Scotland Twitter account
