With some top batters absent from the Dutch squad for this series, it was no surprise that it was the batting that let them down in the first ODI against Afghanistan in Qatar.

Dutch captain Pieter Seelaar, playing his 250th match for The Netherlands won the toss and chose to put the Afghans, technically the home team, into bat. Viv Kingma bowled Rahmanullah Gurbaz early on, but two substantial partnerships followed, with Rahmat Shah scoring 70 and captain Hasmatulah Shahid scoring 73.

From 141-3 though, the Afghans were only able to reach 222-8 from their 50 overs, with Brandon Glover the pick of the Dutch bowlers with 3-43. Normally the Dutch would be expected to chase down a target of that size, but their batting line-up was looking rather threadbare.

And sure enough, whilst Scott Edwards opened and scored 68, the only other contribution of note came from Pieter Seelaar with 32. Rashid Khan, fresh from a record breaking performance in the BBL, was their best bowler with 3-31.

There were three run outs in the later stages of the Dutch innings as they tried to make something happen, but they were bowled out for 186 with two overs remaining and lost by 36 runs. The teams will meet again on Sunday.