Holland thrash Fiji in ICC Trophy

Holland scored an emphatic seven-wicket victory over Fiji in the ICC Trophy at the rain-soaked Ajax Stadium near Toronto Sunday.

The match was reduced to 45 overs after heavy rains in the morning, which delayed the start of play for more than one hour.

In other matches, Bermuda defeated Papua New Guinea by nine wickets, Malaysia handed Israel their third defeat, beating them by six wickets and Nepal downed Gibraltar by three wickets with Argentina and Uganda scoring identical six-run wins over France and East and Central Africa respectively.

With heavy winds blowing across the Ajax ground, Dutchmen put Fijians into bat with their quickies doing excellent job to contain the rivals to 127 in 44.2 overs.

Holland suffered a setback in the beginning when they lost the wicket of their prolific score Zulfiqar Ahmed for eight but Robert van Oosterom (52) and Feiko Kloppenburg (40) batted fluently to guide their team to victory.

Nepal, who were late arrival in Toronto after a series of difficulties in obtaining entry visas to Canada, overcame a poor start while chasing a victory target of 134 at Malton ground near Pearson International Airport.

They had lost five wickets for 52 but Parash Luniya (36) and Kiran Agarwal (26) batted with conviction to steer Nepal home.

In another thrilling game, Argentina reached the victory target against a plucky French side in the last over of the match.

Batting first, Argentina scored 220 for five thanks to a fine knock of 57 by Marias Paterlini.

In reply, Frenchmen looked like surpassing Argentina's challenging score, especially after the brilliant innings from Shabbir Hussain (86), George James (46) and Simon Hewitt (38). But Argentina's paceman Hernan Pereyra picked up three quick wickets to shatter French hopes.