A makeshift Dutch side fell apart dramatically on the first morning of their Intercontinental Cup match against Kenya in Amstelveen on Saturday, and were dismissed an hour after lunch for 126 by a Kenyan attack which turned in an exemplary display of unrelenting seam bowling, backed up by the left-arm spin of Hiren Varaiya.

After dismissing The Netherlands cheaply, the Kenyans had built up a first-innings lead of 53 by the close, but they had been made to work hard for their runs and had lost six wickets in the process.

It has been common in this competition for visiting teams to have a somewhat improvised quality, but seldom has a home side come so close to being an A team.

With Jeroen Smits, Ryan ten Doeschate, Bas Zuiderent and Alexei Kervezee already out of the running, coach Peter Drinnen was confronted by the late withdrawals of Mudassar Bukhari and Daan van Bunge through work commitments, and of Maurits Jonkman through injury.

Nick Statham and Somesh Kohli were drafted into the squad as replacements, with first-class debuts for Rifaiz Bakas and Lesley Stokkers.

Bakas was quickly thrown in the deep end, as Steve Tikolo called correctly and inserted the home side.

It was soon clear that Thomas Odoyo and Peter Ongondo were would provide a severe test, and in the fourth over Ongondo induced Tom de Grooth to edge to Tikolo at second slip. In the next over Bakas did not play a shot to a ball from Odoyo that came back, and was trapped leg-before.

And then in Ongondo’s next Eric Szwarczynski nicked a ball outside off stump to keeper Maurice Ouma, and the Dutch were 7 for three.

Statham had come in at the fall of the first wicket, and he and Stokkers survived for seven overs before Stokkers, attempting to pull a short delivery from Elijah Otieno, got a top edge and Ouma was under the ball as it descended.

That made it 16 for four, and worse was to follow as skipper Peter Borren edged Alfred Luseno to Alex Obanda at second slip to bring the score to 33 for five.

Only Statham was surviving among the wreckage, concentrating entirely upon survival as the Kenyan seamers continued to maintain the pressure.

The first – and only – boundary of the session did not come till the 27th over, a Statham slash over the slips off Otieno, who had switched to the City End. By this time Varaiya had come into the attack, bowling three pre-lunch overs, and it was off the penultimate ball before the interval that he caught Atse Buurman in front and umpire Mark Benson’s finger went up. The Netherlands went to lunch at 49 for six, with Statham on 17.

The tempo quickened a little after lunch, with Statham prepared to play more shots and Edgar Schiferli showing a desire to get after Varaiya. The spinner ended Statham's long resistance when the Dutch batsman lashed out, got under the shot, and was caught at mid-on by Luseno.

Schiferli continued the assault, however, immediately hitting Varaiya for four through wide mid-on, and despite the loss of Pieter Seelaar, leg-before getting half forward to the spinner, he struck 27 off 26 balls before Odoyo came back into the attack and bowled him as he attempted another big drive.

Mohammed Kashif continued where Schiferli had left off, and he was left on 24 not out when, with the total on 126, Kohli hit across the line to Odoyo and was also bowled.

Odoyo finished with three for 16, and Varaiya with three for 53.

There was time for 11 overs from Schiferli and Kohli before tea, and Kenya reached 42 for the loss of David Obuya, caught in the gully by Szwarczynski off Kohli. Borren struck soon after the interval, getting Kennedy Obuya leg-before, but Tikolo quickly showed his intentions, hitting his opposite number for successive boundaries and then taking 16 off Schiferli's next over.

The Kenyan captain was in imperious mood, undaunted by the loss of Obanda, well caught by keeper Buurman off Borren, but Pieter Seelaar now came into the attack, and after suffering another scorching Tikolo drive over mid-on beat his man with the arm ball and had him leg-before. Tikolo had made 37 from 26 balls, including no fewer than eight fours.

94 for four became 119 for five when Buurman collected another smart catch, off Seelaar's bowling, to get rid of Odoyo, and even though the Kenyans were only eight runs short of the first-innings lead, they were made to fight for every one of them.

Seelaar bowled a superb spell of twelve overs, conceding just 33 runs for his two wickets, and when Borren brought Mohammed Kashif on at the other end the two spinners maintained the pressure, bowling well to attacking fields.

Ouma and Jimmy Kamande gradually eked out the lead, however, and it not until three overs from the end of the day that Kashif achieved the breakthrough, Buurman taking a fine leg-side catch to dismiss Kamande.

Ouma had reached his half-century shortly before, made off 84 balls with six fours. It was largely greeted with silence, and the players must have been more than a little confused by the occasional bursts of applause which punctuated the last hour's play, and which had more to do with the KNCB reception on the pavilion terrace than with the actual cricket.

The first day ends with the Kenyans well on top, but the Dutch side fought back well in the field, and will start tomorrow thinking that if they can keep the lead to 80 or so, and can counter the Kenyan attack more effectively than they did in the first innings, this match might well have some twists in it by the final day.