Scots shake off jitters to overcome Holland

SCOTLAND avoided a major embarrassment last night as they claimed an Intercontinental Cup victory against Holland in Deventer.

Peter Steindl's men went into the closing day with a chance to force an innings win. Instead they allowed the Dutch to rally and set them a teasing target of 77. It should still have been plain sailing for the Scots but a kamikaze collapse had them reeling after the loss of six quick wickets.

In the end Neil McCallum and Majid Haq settled nerves to guide the Scots to a four-wicket success.

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The rot had set in when Dougie Lockhart was trapped in front off the first ball of Scotland's second innings. Worse followed when Preston Mommsen was caught behind of Berend Westdijk for two and Jonkman ripped through Qasim Sheikh's defences for just one.

It became 4-4 when Jonkman picked up his third wicket, Richie Berrington, also for a single. The Dutch destroyer then cleaned-up Gregor Maiden for a duck to make it 6-5 and then bowled Matty Parker to make it 18-6. However, McCallum and Haq steadied the ship before Haq hit back-to-back boundaries off Peter Borren. McCallum also opened out to hoist Jonkman over long-off for six. Both finished unbeaten on 34.

Earlier, a sloppy display in the field allowed the Dutch to add 90 crucial runs to their overnight score. Scotland had started the day needing to pick up the final two wickets for less than 13 runs to avoid having to bat again.

Instead home skipper Borren laid into some wayward bowling on his way to a brilliant century, which included five sixes, before he was caught by McCallum off Parker who then bowled Berend Westdijk to finish with 3-56.

Steindl said: "We were in a very precarious situation but Neil and Maj kept their heads."

Victory puts the Scots on top of the seven-team table.

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