Netherlands captain Peter Borren has backed fast bowling prodigy Paul van Meekeren to be the star performer in this week's Desert T20 after their win against Oman.

The Somerset seamer was at his hostile best and Borren reckons you ain't seen nothing yet.

"Paul has been the big improver in the last couple of years. It is his birthday today, he has just turned 24 and if you see how he performed and how he goes about his business, you can see he has a great future," said Borren after the win. 

"In terms of hitting a length, he is also hitting very good lines and is running in pretty hard and I thought today he did them a bit for pace. He got it through to the keeper hard. It’s a massive bonus for us having him bowl as well as he is. You know what you are going to get, four overs of hostile stuff but with very good control and today was no different. He is one to watch for the whole tournament."

The Netherlands recovered from a poor start in the run chase losing Stephan Myburgh and Ben Cooper in the first over, but a steady stand between Michael Rippon and Wesley Barresi got them back on track. However it needed a belligerent cameo from the experienced Roelof van der Merwe to seal the win.

"We got there in the end. It’s a fantastic innings by Roelof van der Merwe hat got us over the line." said Borren. It's nice to get a win in the first game, we have a lot of improving to do but we have a group well capable of playing better cricket than today.

"You have to start well in a tournament and to come away with the points is the main thing. It’s a happy changing room but knows there is room for improvement and we have a couple of days before our next game.

"They are all big games with eight teams fighting for four places but the Scots played really well yesterday, had a convincing win, but we will train hard tomorrow, look at the strengths and weaknesses of the Scottish team and look to lift our game 20 per cent.

"We have a pretty good history playing Scotland and it's a game we are looking forward to We talked about scoring off every ball throughout the innings and our dot balls percentage was a little bit high.

"But you have to take your hat off to Roelof, he’s obviously an experienced player and you felt he was the guy who was going to do it. But Max O’Dowd’s six was another crucial turning point when we needed 14 off 8.

Interim Netherlands coach Chris Adams was delighted to start the tournament with a win, and he too paid tribute to Van Der Merwe's crucial knock.

"The boys practise skills at the death and at the start in the powerplay We are seeing less yorkers because if you don’t get it right it just disappears out of the park, so you have to be good at bowling it and there are not many around who can do it.

"There are other skills to practise but in my time with the Netherlands that was Roelof’s best performance. We expect him to bowl and field well and we expect him to bring a lot in the changing room but he has been a bit shy playing an innings like that.

"It’s a tough time to come in and a tough ask but he played the sort of innings which determines T20 games. They often go down to the last over and if I’m honest both sides looked a bit rusty, it wasn’t our best game by a long way but we won’t complain about that. We’ll take the points and move onto the next game."

Michael Rippon played a vital all-round role and he acknowledged they had been given a tough work-out by Oman.

"I thought they bowled well, especially the spinners, so we struggled to get off strike. I was happy with my bowling, the wicket was tacky so took spin but Peter brought me on at good times when they were trying to accelerate and come after me, but bowling in partnership with Roelof van der Merwe and Paul van Meekeren also helps, as they’re not going for many at the other end."

The Netherlands next match is the crucial one against Scotland on Tuesday.