Cheema 94 in vain for Canada

Netherlands 237 for 7 (Kervezee 75, Borren 50) beat Canada (Cheema 94, Schiferli 4-44) by 50 runs
Scorecard

Edgar Schiferli prompted a dramatic Canada collapse as Netherlands romped to a 50-run win in the first ODI at Amstelveen, despite a brilliant 94 from Rizwan Cheema.

Chasing 238 Canada lost the early wicket of Geoff Barnett for 16, but Cheema powered their response with a thrilling innings. He and Sandeep Jyoti were out of the blocks quickly, Cheema pulling Schiferli for two consecutive fours and going to his fifty with a magnificent blow over the top off Pieter Seelaar. Jyoti was less explosive, relying on rotating the strike with ones and twos, and he fell for 14 trying to loft over long-on.

Cheema continued to put Canada in a strong position with fours square of the wicket off Seelaar, and two more crunching blows off Peter Borren, but six short of his hundred he mistimed a pull off Mudassar Bukhari and his wicket prompted a dramatic collapse, in which Canada lost 7 for 50. Bowling full and straight, Schiferli - named Man of the Tournament in this year's ICC World Cup Qualifiers in South Africa - trapped Zubin Surkari and Ashish Bagai leg-before, while bowling Shaheed Keshvani and Khurram Chohan cheaply, before Borren and Seelar returned to mop up the tail and record a thrilling win for Netherlands.

Borren was one of the stars with the bat for Netherlands, too, with 50 from 45 while Alexei Kervezee top-scored with 75 from 111. Ryan ten Doeschate chipped in with 35.