Scotland head coach Shane Burger says they need to adapt better when they face the Netherlands again today.
The Saltires, playing for the first time since December 2019, lost by 14 runs to the Dutch in yesterday’s One-Day International which was cut to 33 overs per side due to rain.
The teams were due to meet again on Friday, but the fixture has been brought forward to today because of the weather forecast.
Reflecting on yesterday’s loss Burger said: “They were trying to fight off a lot of their rust, it’s been over 500 days since they played.
“When you get into those moments in a game you can never replicate that in training.
“The big moments that you need to win in a game, unfortunately we didn’t quite win.
“The wicket probably played a bit tougher as the day went on and when you haven’t played a lot of cricket your ability to adapt to the wicket probably takes a hit.
“Whereas when you’ve played a lot of cricket those skills to adapt to the wicket happen far quicker.
“We’re going to have to adapt to conditions, a bit quicker, but hopefully we’ve learned a lot of lessons.
“This was our first game for a long time in international cricket – that’s no excuse – a good player adapts quickly.
“But in this case we won’t be harsh on the guys for losing by a small margin.”
Changes could be made
Burger plans to make some alterations to the side for today’s encounter with ex-Stoneywood-Dyce all-round Michael Leask, former Aberdeenshire pace bowler Adrian Neill and wicketkeeper Craig Wallace left out yesterday.
Burger added: “We’ll look at shifting the squad around because we’ve got 14 players on this trip and I think it’s important we look at what the whole squad can do.
“You want to win every single game in international cricket, but you also want to see what the various individuals can contribute.”
Failing to capitalise on a good start
Scotland started well in the field and reduced the Netherlands to 59-5 with Gavin Main picking up two wickets and Safyaan Sharif, Mark Watt and Hamza Tahir taking a scalp apiece.
But Saqib Zulfiqar (12) and the excellent Max O’Dowd (83) rebuilt with a partnership of 39 before Watt trapped the former in front.
Logan van Beek added a useful 24 before Ali Evans snared him and O’Dowd was run out in the final over by Sharif as the Netherlands reached 163-8.
A fruitless chase
In Scotland’s chase Aberdonian Matt Cross was caught at slip for a single off Vivian Kingma with skipper Kyle Coetzer departing in the eighth over for nine, again caught off Kingma.
It got worse for the Saltires when Calum MacLeod was bowled for 14 by Paul van Meekeren three overs later.
Richie Berrington and George Munsey gave the Scots hope with a partnership of 69 before Munsey fell to van Beek for 27 to make the score 100-4.
Berrington went for 41 – caught off Kingma – with only one more added to the score and when Aryan Dutt removed Dylan Budge (4) and Mark Watt (15) in 29th over Scotland’s chances were as good as over and they finished on 149-8.