Canada battered to emphatic defeat

Netherlands 289 for 7 (Borren 96, Szwarczynski 51) beat Canada 172 (Dhaniram 55, Schiferli 3-18, Bukhari 3-24) by 117 runs
Scorecard

Netherlands romped to 117-run victory over Canada in the first of two ODIs at the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club, but the manner of their victory was far more emphatic than the final margin suggests.

They underlined what the World Cup had shown, namely that the gap between the four leading Associates - of which they are one - and Canada remains wide. Whereas the four-day Intercontinental Cup match had gone down to the wire - and Canada will still wonder quite how they lost it - there was only ever one winner at Toronto today.

Netherlands won the toss, batted, and all their top five contributed with South African-born Eric Szwarczynski cracking 51 and then the middle of the innings was given a real fillip by Peter Borren who smashed 96 off 69 balls. It was his first ODI fifty and included four sixes and nine fours.

Canada were 21 for 3 in the ninth over and from there on in the innings fell apart. At 73 for 8 a complete humiliation seemed likely but Sunil Dhaniram hit ten fours in his 55 and the last pair of Steven Welsh and Henry Osinde chipped in with a stand of 45. By then, all that was at stake was pride.