A couple of 4 wickets hauls from Fred Klassen & Roelof van der Merwe helped Netherlands post victory in the 2nd practice game against Hong Kong at ICC Academy 2 ground. Both teams would still feel content by sharing the spoils 1-1 at the end of the 2-match schedule arranged before I-Cup and WCL fixtures, which begin shortly in UAE.
Hong Kong were put into bat first by Netherlands and got bowled out for 169 in 44.2 overs with Klassen (4/41) and van der Merwe (4/35) leading the way for the dutch bowlers. Anshuman Rath (61) gave a good start to Hong Kong but found no support from the top order. Only Tanwir Afzal (20) and Aizaz Khan (29) provided few runs down the order to take Hong Kong till their final score.
Netherlands got good start from Stephan Myburgh and Wesley Barresi, who provided a 44 runs partnership for the opening wicket but lost both Barresi & Ben Cooper in short space of time to get reduced to 48/2 in the 9th over.
Myburgh (66) and Peter Borren (57 retired hurt) combined to forge a 111 runs partnership for the 4th wicket before Borren retired hurt and Myburgh also departed soon after but the target was well within reach as Peter Seelaar & Sikandar Zulfiqar took them to victory as they reached 170/4 in 27.2 overs to win the match by 6 wickets.
Ehsan Khan continued his wicket-taking spree for Hong Kong, as he collected 3/19 out of the 4 wickets to fall for Netherlands.
