Netherlands dominate Zimbabwe to win first ODI

The Netherlands dominated Zimbabwe with both bat and ball to win the first ODI at Deventer by seven wickets on Thursday.

Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to bat giving a debut to left arm spinner Ainsley Ndlovu.

The top-order did not stick around for much and only two batsmen Brendan Taylor (71) and Kyle Jarvis (32*) made more runs than the extras (23).

The rain-interrupted match was reduced to 47 overs and most of the batsmen just never got going showing a lot of indiscipline on a pitch which tail ender Jarvis showed was not really that bad.

Fred Klaasen (2-29), Paul van Meekeren (2-30) and Pietar Seelaar (2-32) did the damage and Zimbabwe could only post 205-8.

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Jarvis leaked runs early to put pressure on the tourists against debutants Tobias Visee and Max O’dowd. The former was out first for 28 to Ndlovu’s first ball in ODI cricket.

The spinners along with Donald Tiripano steadied the required run rate a little but Zimbabwe never had enough runs. O’Dowd was 82 unbeaten when Netherlands completed their run chase with 26 balls remaining and seven wickets in hand. Netherlands posted 209/8 in the end.

The other two wickets went to Sean Williams who returned 2-38.

Zimbabwe will now look to level the two match series on Friday at the same venue.