The Netherlands fell 16 runs short of Afghanistan in the first of their WT20 warm-up matches despite a fine 50 from the returning Tom Cooper.

Having lost the toss and been invited to field the Dutch did well to rein in the scoring in the middle overs after Noor Ali Zadran and captain Asghar Stanikzai had seen the Afghans off to a brisk start, but Samiullah Shenwari marshalled the lower order and together with Shafiqullah Shafiq saw Afghanistan finish strongly to post 152.

The Dutch chase never recovered from a slow start, and despite holding wickets in hand throughout the middle order was left with too much to do, a late blitz from Tom Cooper and Roelof van der Merwe falling 16 runs short of the total.

With captain Peter Borren rested due to a sore shoulder, stand-in skipper Pieter Seelaar nonetheless emulated Borren's usual offspin gambit, Tom Cooper delivering the first over in the absence of Michael Swart, at the cost of four runs.

Stanikzai and Zadran soon upped the tempo however, Stanikzai hitting Mudassar Bukhari for consecutive sixes in the fourth over. Vivian Kingma brought the Dutch back into the game with a triple breakthough, first running out Zadran on the last ball of the 5th over before striking twice in consecutive balls to remove Stanikzai and Nabi.

The scoring slowed somewhat thereafter, van der Merwes left arm spin proving especially economical, yet despite regular wickets falling Shenwari amassed a steady 42 to keep the board ticking, and a quickfire 24 from Shafiqullah saw Afghanistan to a competitive total of 152.

The Dutch reply started haltingly, Dalwat Zadran delivering a maiden for the second over and claiming Stephan Myburgh's wicket with the final ball. Welsey Barresi looked to force the pace but Ben Cooper struggled for fluency at the other end, young legspinner Rashid Khan keeping him contained. Shenwawir profitted from the pressure, clean bowling Cooper on the first ball of the tenth for a laboured 14 off 21, and Rashid himself struck the following over to remove Barresi in like fashion for 27.

Michael Rippon struggled to an 18-ball 11 before falling to Nabi one ball after finding his first boundary, and by the time van der Merwe and Tom Cooper came together in the 17th over, the required rate was touching 18.

The pair made a decent go of it, taking 41 runs off the last 20 balls with Cooper reaching his half century in the final over, but the total was always likely to be beyond them and Afghanistan closed out a comfortable win.