The Netherlands completed their group schedule in fine style in Sharjah on Tuesday, recording the highest total of the tournament and defeating an outclassed Hong Kong side by a massive 83-run margin.

Maintaining a rate of ten an over or more throughout the innings, the Dutch reached 201 for five, hitting a total of 16 fours and ten sixes in a ruthless display of batting power against an attack which was largely unable to contain them.

The honourable exception was seamer James Lamsam, who finally broke an opening partnership of 97 between Stephan Myburgh and Michael Swart by trapping the latter in front after he had made a 22-ball 38 with three fours and three sixes, and eventually finished with two for 35 from his four overs.

His figures would have been even better had his fielders been able to hold onto their catches: several chances were put down in the deep, mostly off the unfortunate Lamsam's bowling.

Myburgh and Swart did what they have been threatening to do throughout the tournament, savaging the bowling and hitting boundaries of enormous power, dominating even more than they had against Papua New Guinea. Several of the sixes landed in the stands, and from one blow by Myburgh the ball bounced off the roof and disappeared out of the stadium.

It took only 53 deliveries for the openers to run up their 97 stand, and Myburgh's half-century came from 29. When he was eventually the second to depart, bowled by the persistent Aizaz Khan, he had made 68 from 36 balls, with a remarkable five fours and five sixes: in other words, 50 of his runs came from boundaries.

Tom Cooper maintained the momentum well with a 25-ball 42, and when he became Lamsam's second victim, Nizakat Khan holding onto a catch at deep midwicket, the Netherlands were on 153 for three with five overs left.

Alexei Kervezee and Wesley Barresi came and went, but Mudassar Bukhari contributed 24 from 14 balls and he and Peter Borren ensured that the magic figure of 200 was passed from the final delivery of the innings.

It was a total which Hong Kong could scarcely hope to match, and when Swart and Bukhari removed the openers by the time the score was on 6, it seemed as if real humiliation might be on the cards.

But the Dutch were denied by a spirited exhibition of batting from Hong Kong skipper James Atkinson – whose father Steve played in the ICC Trophy for both the Netherlands and Hong Kong. Atkinson showed every bit as much skill and aggression as the Dutch top order had done, and his 64 from 45 balls with six fours and four sixes was as fine an innings as any.

He received little support, however, from the other batsmen, and his domination is reflected in the fact that when he was fourth out, he had score more than three-quarters of the total of 84.

Swart and Bukhari were again economical with the new ball, but the bowling performance of the innings came from Tom Cooper, whose four overs produced two wickets and conceded just eight runs. That, combined with his batting earlier on, earned him the Man of the Match award.

There were two wickets, too, for Tim Gruijters, who along with Tom Heggelman was playing his first match of the tournament. 11 runs came from his two overs, and he removed Lamsam and Courtney Kruger, who was the only batsman apart from Atkinson to take on the bowling with any success and who was eventually well caught by Kervezee at long on.

Hong Kong ended on 118 for seven, and the winning margin was probably a fair reflection of the gap between the sides.

Scotland having squeezed into the play-offs by 0.007 on net run rate after their shock defeat by the USA, they will be the Netherlands' first opponents in the second phase, in the Dubai International Stadium on Thursday morning.

The winner of that game will face the winner of the other crossover semi-final, between Ireland and Canada, on Friday, and the winner of that will take on the loser of the match between the top teams in the two groups to decide the second qualifying place in the World Twenty20 championship in Sri Lanka.

It is, by any standards, a very tough schedule.