The Netherlands continued their domination of Bermuda with a comfortable six-wicket victory in Friday’s ODI in Amstelveen, despite falling somewhat short of the form which had taken them to next year’s World Twenty20 competition.

It was a tribute to the drainage capacities of VRA’s ground, the hard work of groundsman Andy Clarke and his team and the good sense of the umpires that, despite Thursday’s torrential downpour and intermittent showers during much of Friday, the game could be played at all, let alone extend to 40 overs per side.

Four overs a side were lost before play could begin at 12:30. The Netherlands made Daan van Bunge twelfth man, Adeel Raja coming into the originally selected side in place of Henk-Jan Mol, and Lesley Stokkers making his ODI debut.

Put in to bat by Dutch skipper Jeroen Smits, the Bermudians made a good start in spite of the early loss of Oronde Bascombe, Chris Foggo (38) and Jekon Edness (31) adding 66 for the second wicket in a valuable partnership punctuated by a break for rain.

They departed within four runs of each other, Edness holing out to Tom de Grooth off the bowling of Raja, and Ryan ten Doeschate removing Foggo and James Celestine with successive balls to leave Bermuda tottering on 85 for four.

This brought Stephen Outerbridge and skipper Irving Romaine together, however, and they set about restoring their side’s fortunes once again.

They had brought the score to 102 for four after 30.2 overs when a lengthy interruption caused a further reduction to 40 overs, leaving the Bermudians with a ten-over spell to push the score up as far as possible.

Romaine duly went onto the attack, smacking sixes off Edgar Schiferli and Peter Borren in a 47-ball innings of 46 before, having survived one straightforward chance, he lofted Ten Doeschate to Borren at long on and departed.

Outerbridge had gone two balls previously, splendidly caught by Raja off Borren’s bowling for a steady 24, and the Bermudian innings closed on 165 for seven.

Ten Doeschate was the most successful of the Dutch bowlers with three for 35, but Schiferli and Mudassar Bukhari both bowled well, and Raja contributed an excellent spell of off-spin, taking one for 19 in his eight overs.

A Duckworth/Lewis calculation brought this up to 173, so the Dutch were set 174 to win.

Darron Reekers gave them a great start, hitting 30 off 25 balls with four fours and a six before he was well caught by Celestine at long off off Stefan Kelly's bowling.

His opening partner De Grooth was more circumspect, but was just getting into his stride when he was struck in the face by a Kelly bouncer and forced to retire.

Ten Doeschate now joined Eric Szwarczynski, and they put on 81 together in 15 overs in a partnership which effectively settled the match.

The Essex man removed Dwayne Leverock from the attack almost as soon as he appeared, hitting him for two massive straight sixes in his second over, and his 47 from 46 balls was a fine display of controlled aggression.

Szwarczynski proceeded more sedately at the other end, but neither looked in any real trouble until Kelly came back into the attack and almost immediately tempted Ten Doeschate into hitting a catch to Tamauri Tucker in the deep.

Borren departed in the same over, and for a moment the Bermudians may have sensed that they could claw their way back into the game.

But Szwarczynski was still there, and partnered now by debutant Stokkers he made his way to a second consecutive ODI half-century, made off 66 balls with four boundaries.

He almost saw his side home, but with five still needed he was caught by Outerbridge at backward point of off-spinner Rodney Trott.

Stokkers and Geert Maarten Mol were put under some pressure, but they withstood it well, and there were nearly four overs remaining when Mol hit the winning runs.

Ten Doeschate won the Man of the Match award for his three wickets and innings of 47.