ROTTERDAM, Netherlands – Canada’s batting attack collapsed after a fast start in Saturday’s ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 match, losing by 63 runs to the Netherlands.

The worst damage was done by Dutch pace bowler Paul van Meekeren, who took five wickets in 9.4 overs and conceded 28 runs. Vivian Kingma took three wickets in seven overs for 31 runs.

Faced with a victory target of 221, Canada were trailing openers Aaron Johnson and Dilpreet Bajwa by 59 for nil before the ground gave way. Dazzled by Kingma and van Meekeren, Canada lost six wickets for just 11 runs and were bowled out for 157 in the 36th over.

Wicketkeeper Shreyas Movva offered some resistance at the end of the Canadian innings, finishing with 47. Movva hit four fours in his 72-ball innings.

“The midfielders just didn’t hit today, except for Movva,” said newly appointed Canadian captain Nicholas Kirton. “He played pretty well.”

“To their credit, they bowled well,” he added.

After opening League 2 play with four straight wins in Dubai earlier this year – beating Scotland and hosts United Arab Emirates twice – the Canadians have lost three straight games in their second Tri-Nations series, two to hosts Netherlands and one to the United States.

With their fourth consecutive win, the Netherlands (5-2-0) took the lead, displacing Scotland (4-2-0) while Canada (4-3-0) fell to third place.

The top four teams in the eight-country League 2 will qualify for a ten-team World Cup qualifier at the end of 2026, which will send four teams to the Cricket World Cup. The bottom four countries in League 2 will have a second chance via the World Cup Qualifier Playoff.

The field of participants for the 2027 World Cup has been expanded to 14 teams, but ten of these places have already been allocated according to the one-day rankings: to the tournament co-hosts South Africa and Zimbabwe and the best eight other full members of the ICC.

Canada, which has not participated in the World Cup since 2011, is ranked 16th in One-Day International play and 23rd in T20 play.

Johnson hit six fours and a six in his 28-ball knock before being caught by a Kingma throw to start the Canadian Slide. Noah Croes caught Pargat Singh out of play with a spectacular catch, flying through the air at second slip and snatching the ball with one hand. Five runs off five runs.

After opener Dilpreet Bajwa was dismissed for 20 runs with Canada at 66 for three, Singh, Kirton (nil), Harsh Thaker (nil) and Ravinderpal Singh (one) came and went.

Next came Saad Bin Zafar, who was dismissed lbw (leg before wicket) for 12 when Canada were 94 for seven.

Movva and Dilon Heyliger, batsmen Nos. 6 and 9, kept the game steady until Heyliger was dismissed LBW on 14 and Canada was 121 for 8.

Kaleem Sana was then caught at fourth over and the Canadian innings ended with Junaid Siddiqui out LBW at fifth over.

After Canada won the toss and elected to field, the Dutch were bowled out in 14th place for 220 runs after 47.2 overs. Captain Sean Edwards led the home team’s attack with 72 runs from 94 balls.

Sana was Canada’s best bowler, taking four wickets at the cost of 30 runs in 7.3 overs.

Canada will play under a new captain, Kirton replacing Zafar, and without a head coach as Pubudu Dassanayake’s contract expired at the end of July and was not renewed. Assistant coach Khurram Chohan will take over until a new head coach is appointed.

The Canadians will also face the Americans in Rotterdam on Monday (1-1-0).

The Canadian men had little time to prepare for the switch to the 50-over matches of League 2, leaving behind the shorter, more explosive 20-over format of the Global T20 tournament in Brampton, Ontario.

Canada are scheduled to play T20 matches against the Dutch and Americans immediately after the upcoming 50-over matches. Canada will then host a League 2 Tri-Nations series with Oman and Nepal in Toronto in September.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published August 17, 2024.