VOORBURG – Canada suffered its first defeat in five matches in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup League 2, losing to the Netherlands by five wickets on Sunday.

After Canada finished on 194 in their innings, the Dutch reached their victory target in the 46th over, finishing on 195 for 5. New Zealand-born opener Max O’Dowd, whose mother is Dutch, led the way with 79 and eight fours in his 119-ball innings and was named player of the match.

The Dutch batsmen dominated until former Canada captain Saad Bin Zafar took three late wickets in his second bowling appearance.

“To be honest, I don’t think we bowled that badly considering it took them about 40 overs to score the runs. But with the bat we were definitely a bit short,” said newly appointed Canadian captain Nicholas Kirton.

“Overall, it wasn’t a bad game from us, I would say, there are just areas that need improvement,” he added.

Wicketkeeper Shreyas Movva led the Canadian batting attack with 65 runs from 90 balls with six fours.

The Canadians only arrived in the Netherlands on Friday, many of them playing in the Global T20 Canada tournament in Brampton, Ontario.

In the International Cricket Council’s one-day international rankings, the Dutch (3-2) are ranked 14th and the Canadians are ranked 15th.

Canada (4-1) will face the USA, ranked 19th, on Tuesday and August 19, and the Netherlands again on August 17. The Canadian men have already recorded two victories over the United Arab Emirates and Scotland in Dubai in February and March.

Cricket World Cup League 2 also includes Namibia, Nepal and Oman, with each of the eight teams playing 36 One-Day Internationals in nine triangular series until December 2026.

The top four teams will participate in a ten-country World Cup qualifier, with the last four teams qualifying for the 2027 World Cup.

Canada last participated in the World Cup in 2011; the country also took part in 1997, 2003 and 2007.

The Canadians have climbed the cricket rankings since being relegated to Division 3 of the ICC World Cricket League in 2017, earning promotion to Division 2 in a bid to qualify for the 2027 World Cup. In April 2023, Canada regained its One-Day International status for the first time in nearly a decade.

Canada won the toss and elected to bat first on Sunday, finishing with a total of 194 all out with eight balls remaining in their allotted 50 overs.

Harsh Thaker added 35, opener Dilpreet Bajwa contributed 25 and Bin Zafar 22. Kirton was dismissed after just four balls for one run.

Kyle Klein was the best of the Dutch bowlers, taking four wickets but costing 33 runs.

Dutch openers Michael Levitt and O’Dowd combined for 77 runs before Levitt was caught on 45 with eight fours from his 50-ball knock. The Netherlands did not lose another wicket until Vikramjit Singh was caught on 29 when the Dutch were 155 for two.

The 2027 World Cup, scheduled to take place in October and November, will involve 14 teams and play 54 matches in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Two of the three co-hosts, South Africa and Zimbabwe, and eight of the other top 10 ranked teams in the ICC One-Day Internationals will qualify automatically.

In addition to four teams from World Cup League 2, the World Cup Qualifiers will include two ICC Full Members lowest placed in the one-day international rankings (excluding World Cup co-hosts South Africa and/or Zimbabwe) and the top four teams from a World Cup Qualifier Playoff.

The last four teams from League 2 have another chance to qualify by joining four teams from the Challenge League in the World Cup qualifying playoff.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published August 11, 2024.

The Canadian Press