An unbeaten 89 from Kyle Coetzer guided Scotland to a five-wicket win and a 2-0 clean sweep of their one-day international series against Netherlands in the second match at Mannofield Park

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Jun-2011
Scorecard
An unbeaten 89 from Kyle Coetzer guided Scotland to a five-wicket win and a 2-0 clean sweep of their one-day international series against Netherlands in the second match at Mannofield Park in Abderdeen. Coetzer weathered the early losses of Fraser Watts and Calum Macleod to secure the win with 11 balls remaining in a rain-affected game, and upstaged the earlier efforts of Netherlands captain Peter Borren, who had rescued his side from a perilous 54 for 6 with an unbeaten 71.There was also an impressive performance from 20-year-old Scotland debutant Safyaan Sharif, whose brisk seamers caused trouble to the Netherlands top order after they had been put in to bat by Scotland captain Gordon Drummond. Sharif nipped out Netherlands’ top three for single-digit scores in his opening spell to reduce the visitors to 22 for 3.Gordon Goudie’s seamers brought him two wickets in consecutive overs, and Richie Berrington then broke the back of the middle order by yorking Tom Cooper, whose 75 had very nearly inspired a Netherlands win in the first match. Borren and Tom Heggelman cautiously began to repair the damage, taking what risk-free runs were on offer to add 54 for the seventh wicket before Heggelman tried to break the shackles with an expansive shot that only resulted in an edge through to wicketkeeper Gregor Maiden in the 40th over.His dismissal brought the big-hitting Mudassar Bukhari to the crease, and the batting Powerplay was immediately called for. Not a single boundary was hit in the next five overs, however, and it was not until Borren broke free with two fours in Coetzer’s ninth over – the first of which took him to fifty – that the runs began to flow. Bukhari added a slogged six and a deftly cut four before he picked out long-on, and Netherlands’ 180 for 9 represented something of a recovery, considering what dire straits they had been in.Bukhari carried his fight into his bowling performance, finding the inside edge of Watts’ bat and yorking Macleod to reduce Scotland to a shaky 14 for 2. Josh Davey gave Coetzer good support to spark a recovery, and they had not been parted when rain stopped play in the 17th over, with the interruption resulting in a loss of nine overs and a revised target of 162 in 41 overs.Davey departed soon after the resumption, having helped put on 57 for the third wicket, and Netherlands continued to chip away at the middle order but Coetzer continued to find the boundary, bringing up his fifty from 63 deliveries. He took Scotland within touching distance of the win with a slog-swept six off Cooper’s offspin before sealing the result with a scything drive through the covers with just under two overs remaining.