It was a lovely day when Ireland won the toss and batted on a matting pitch on shale base which was quite bouncy. The Irish side was unchanged. McCallan and Joyce opened as usual to Khan and Leemhuis. Joyce was out in the third over, bowled while playing across Khan. For a while McCallan and Smyth played well. 29 was up in eight overs. de Leede came on (left arm medium) and Smyth hooked a four and drove a three. Now it was 31 in nine overs. From this point Ireland lost five wickets for 31 runs in 15 overs.

Leemhuis got McCallan caught at gully when he failed to drop his hands to a lifter. 39-2-12. Worse followed at 41 when two wickets fell. Smyth was lbw to de Leede on the last ball of an over. The first ball of the next over from Leemhuis saw Gillespie well caught low down by the only slip. Van Troost was the fourth bowler - right arm medium. 50 came up in over 16 and there were, not unnaturally, three maidens in a row. Then in successive overs van Troost got Molins and Dunlop. Molins snicked to the wicket-keeper without foot movement and Dunlop mistimed a careless drive which swirled to extra cover. 68 for six with all the specialised batsmen gone.

Cooke and Eagleson set about retrieving the situation slowly. With Khan and van Troost bowling six runs came in five overs. Singh (off spin) and Zulfiqar (slow medium) came on but 100 did not arrive until over 35. de Leede returned for the 40th over. Cooke took a wild swing at the fourth ball and was bowled. 112-7-19. Davy was lbw to Singh playing to leg at 116. Two runs later Eagleson's gallant innings (his 27 was the highest score) ended when he was caught at backward square leg wafting at Singh. The final pair, Bushe and Dwyer did, at least, play out the last five overs and added 16 runs. Those off the bat were all in singles. Off the last ball of the innings Bushe was caught at the wicket. Dwyer was once again not-out - his fifth innings for Ireland and yet to be dismissed. No Dutch bowler conceded more than 27. Leemhuis, de Leede and Singh all bowled 10 overs with Leemhuis taking three for 27. It was a sorry Irish batting display.

There was hope in the Irish camp when Holland stood at 28 for three in the 10th over and, perhaps, for a little while again at 69 for four in the 24th over. van Noortwijk and van Troost quickly extinguished this. At six Bradley was lbw to Eagleson. At 18 Eagleson was again responsible for a wicket. Bakker mishooked Davy to deep backward square leg where Eagleson took a very fine catch from a high swirling ball. Bakker had hit two fours in the same over. de Leede was too fine with his glance at the first ball of the 10th over bowled by Eagleson. He was caught by Bushe on the leg side.

He dissented and was spoken to by the umpires after the match. 28-3-4. The tiny Zulfiqar and van Noortwijk settled down with the former hitting bad balls for fours. He got six of these in his 36 run innings. There was a near run-out. A stroke to mid-on, a call, the non-striker sent back and McCallan chose to run with the ball. He was too late and should have rolled from five yards. Dwyer came on at 44 (14th over). 50 came in over 19. Dwyer bowled five overs for five runs but McCallan gave up 13 in his first two including a straigt six by van Noortwijk. In his sixth over Zulfiqar swept Dwyer to backward square leg where McCallan held on. 69-4-36.

After one more over Dwyer (one for 12 in seven overs) was, most surprisingly, withdrawn in favour of Eagleson who did, in fact, bowl two maidens. Davy reappeared and his second over yielded 10 to bring up 104 after 34 overs. Six more overs were required by Holland to win the match. van Troost hoisted Cooke for a six over square leg in over 36. Scoring became rapid in the last few overs bowled by Cooke and McCallan. In over 36 van Troost was bowled having a swing at Cooke.

Dwyer came back with the scores level and van Noortwijk hit his first ball to wide long on for four. 40.1 overs had been bowled. Eagleson, two for 18, in eight overs, and Dwyer, one for 16 in 7.1 overs, were the best bowlers. The failure of the latter to be asked to bowl his 10 overs is difficult to explain.

Ireland had "a bad day at the office". van Noortwijk was given the Man-of-the-Match Award.

Derek Scott