A young Northamptonshire Second XI took the Netherlands down to the final over in their first one day match of the season, falling 13 runs short after a positive performance.
The Netherlands elected to bat after winning the toss, with Singh and Nadeem providing a strong opening partnership. Two quickfire wickets curtailed progress though with White having Nadeem caught at slip and de Leede caught behind off Sales.
This brought Nidamanuru to the middle, proving to be a stalwart through the middle order, forming a 50-run partnership with Singh and then a 96-run partnership with Edwards after Singh nicked into the hands of Gouldstone off the bowling of Russell.
After Curran held on to a good catch to see the back of Nidamanuru, the Steelbacks took quick wickets with Russell trapping Gorlee LBW, bowling Klein and Dutt giving Glover his first.
Boissevain and Elenbaas saw out the innings for the Netherlands, ending on 283/8 and setting up an enticing chase for the second innings.
James Cronie and Ben Curran opened the innings for Northamptonshire, providing a solid foundation before Cronie was bowled by Kingma. Curran continued an impressive start to the year and looked in ominous touch before he fell reverse sweeping Dutt.
Zaib continued the chase with clear intent before Dutt claimed another big wicket, finding the edge on an attempted cut. Sales continued where Zaib left off though, batting superbly to 47 before Dutt claimed a third, Sales unlucky to be caught on the midwicket boundary after connecting well with his pull.
Following up on Sales’ good work, Harry Gouldstone went three better to pick up his half century, batting fluently to rack up 56 runs from 61 balls to keep the target in sight.
The Steelbacks lower order stuttered in the closing stages as wickets began to fall. de Leede saw Jefferies and Buck dismissed, leading to a final partnership of Glover and Heldreich chasing 60 runs from 38 balls. The pair took the chase to the wire, needing 21 off the final over after a flurry of boundaries, but ultimately fell 13 runs short with the Steelbacks ending on 270/8.