Scotland need 149 runs to win on final day

A pair of fighting lower-order partnerships in the first innings, followed by a tight bowling performance in Netherlands' second innings left Scotland with a target of 201 for a win in the Intercontinental Cup match at the Voorburg Cricket Club. The visitors reached 52 for 3 at the end of the third day and need another 149 runs on the final day for a victory.

Netherlands bowled out Scotland for 133 to secure first-innings points with a 77-run lead, but wasted the advantage with a middle-order collapse that saw them reduced to 44 for 5 before they crawled to 123 in 43 overs.

Resuming the day on 35 for 6, Rob Taylor was part of two key partnerships that helped Scotland narrow their first-innings deficit against Netherlands' total of 210. Taylor added 36 with Matthew Cross for the seventh wicket and another 35 with Safyaan Sharif for the ninth wicket, rescuing Scotland from the danger of being bowled out for a double-figure total.

Roelof van der Merwe claimed Cross for the first wicket of the day, trapped lbw on the back foot for 17, before Quirijn Gunning pinned Con de Lange for a second-ball duck in the following over. The Taylor-Sharif stand took Scotland past 100 but Taylor fell a short time later to Vivian Kingma for 46, inside-edging a ball off his pads that trickled on to the stumps.

Kingma's desperation for a five-for backfired as Sharif and Alasdair Evans seized on a series of overpitched deliveries to drive through the off side during a vital 30-run tenth-wicket stand. Michael Rippon was eventually brought on for his left-arm wrist spin to finish the Scotland innings and, in his third over, trapped Sharif in front for 32, with the lunch break 30 minutes away.

Netherlands only had to bat four overs before the break but still managed to lose a wicket as Rahil Ahmed edged Evans to Kyle Coetzer at first slip, closing out a disappointing first-class debut with four runs in each innings. Resuming at 17 for 1, Netherlands lost a wicket in the first over after lunch as Ben Cooper's edged drive off Josh Davey found Hamish Gardiner at third slip.

After top-scoring with 73 in the first innings, van der Merwe fell without scoring when his attempted drive off Davey resulted in a thin edge to the keeper Cross. Wesley Barresi inside-edged a ball from Sharif off his pads and the carrom floated toward Gardiner again, who lunged from third slip with a one-handed effort to cling on to his fourth catch of the match.

Pieter Seelaar joined Rippon, who had scored 37 of Netherlands' first 44 runs in the innings, but Seelaar's nervy start - it took him 16 balls to get off the mark - put pressure on Rippon and eventually resulted in a run-out. Seelaar pushed for a tight single off Sharif to start the 16th over and de Lange flew in from square leg with an underarm direct hit 10 yards out to catch Rippon short at the striker's end.

Just as he had with van der Merwe on Wednesday, Stephan Myburgh led a solid counter-attack after entering at No. 7 with the score at 44 for 5. He made 31 off 55, including a 41-run stand with Seelaar to alleviate a bit of the mounting pressure before Seelaar was bounced out by Davey, hooking to Evans at long leg for 19 and Netherlands entered tea at 105 for 6.

Mommsen brought Richie Berrington on for the first time in the match at the start of the final session and the move paid off almost immediately as Myburgh drove him straight to Davey at short cover for 31. Four overs later, Berrington was the center of attention during a slightly controversial run-out appeal to dismiss Paul van Meekeren, which was eventually upheld.

Van Meekeren was on strike and defended a Berrington delivery towards silly point. Peter Borren called for a run from the non-striker's end while van Meekeren initially stayed put before taking off. Mommsen ran forward from slip to field and fired to Berrington in plenty of time, but Berrington struggled to collect the low and wide throw in front of the non-striker's stumps. He managed to grasp the ball eventually but was off balance and fell backwards into the stumps and, at the same time, appeared to have just elbowed the off stump with ball in hand to dislodge the bails.

Umpire Peter Nero was in perfect position and initially gave a not-out decision. However, after consulting with C Shamshuddin at square leg for several minutes, van Meekeren was given out, though Borren did not offer much protest and later said after play that he thought the right decision was made despite the sequence appearing "a bit messy."

Borren skied Berrington to Gardiner at cover for his fifth catch of the match two overs later to make it 121 for 9. Gunning added two runs to take Netherlands' lead to exactly 200 before Kingma fell, caught by de Lange at square leg after failing to fend off a bouncer from Sharif.

With 90 minutes to bat out before the end of play, Scotland were in deep trouble at 18 for 3. Van Meekeren got Coetzer to edge to second slip for 8 before Gardiner was pinned in front playing across to Van der Merwe for 7. Machan was the third wicket, unable to sway out of the path of a bouncer from Gunning.

Mommsen and Berrington, however, stayed positive in the final 45 minutes with Berrington sweeping Rippon twice to the square leg boundary. The pair walked off unbeaten on 18 and 16 respectively. The possibility of a draw is not out of the question for Friday with rain in the forecast for early in the day, which may cut into the 106 allotted overs remaining.