Zuiderent and van Troost secure a draw

Scotland 314 for 7 and 250 for 8 drew with Netherlands 257 and 207 for 3 (Zuiderent 68*)
Scorecard

Holland batted out the day to secure a draw in their Intercontinental Cup match against Scotland at Aberdeen, despite being set a gettable target of 307 with 61 overs left in the game. Craig Wright used seven bowlers in an effort to secure a win, but Bas Zuiderent and Luuk van Troost clung on until the end to guide Holland to safety.

Earlier, Holland's bowlers kept Scotland in check when a large total seemed to be on the cards, but could not do enough to consolidate for the team's first-innings deficit, and Scotland declared at lunch with their score on 250 for 8. Half-centuries from Fraser Watts and Bruce Patterson gave Scotland the advantage yesterday, but some accurate bowling by Holland and four wickets to Sebastiaan Gokke today meant that they were still very much in the game.

Watson fell first this morning, after Scotland resumed at 130 for 2. He lofted a catch to Daan van Bunge at extra cover off the bowling of Schiferli (164 for 3), and with his departure triggered something of a collapse. Colin Smith was out second ball for 1, caught by Luuk van Troost off Sebastiaan Gokke (168 for 4), and Watts was trapped lbw by the same bowler for 79 (174 for 5).

Cedric English failed to match his first-innings form, unluckily stumped off an inside-edge by Jeroen Smits for 17 to give Gokke his third wicket of the morning (209 for 6). Almost immediately after, Craig Wright was run out attempting a suicidal second run (210 for 7). Holland's bowling was economical, and with a very defensive field runs were hard to come by. Greig Williamson was caught at long-on for 21, trying to increase the run rate (234 for 8), but Ian Stanger and Majid Haq stayed together until lunch, when the declaration came.

Scotland had just the start they wanted when Holland came out to bat after the break, when Paul Hoffman trapped Daan van Bunge lbw for a duck (7 for 1). Tom de Grooth and Adeel Raja fought back with a 79-run partnership, but it was immediately apparent that Holland weren't going for the win. De Grooth had scored 59 off 110 balls when he was caught at silly point to give Bruce Patterson, Scotland's 39-year-old veteran, the first wicket of his international career (86 for 2). He struck again almost at once, when Steve Knox snapped up Raja at short fine-leg for 28 (95 for 3).

After tea, Craig Wright made frequent bowling changes in an effort to get a breakthrough, but Zuiderent and van Troost calmed the nerves with an unbeaten 112-run partnership. Holland reached 207 for 3 at the close to secure bonus points for their batting, but the negative cricket played will not have won any new converts to the game.