A move to a pace dominated attack paid off for the Netherlands today in Adelaide as they recorded a win over Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe captain Craig Ervine won the toss and chose to bat first but Fred Klaassen, Paul van Meekeren and Brandon Glover bowled well in the powerplay to restrict them to 20-3. A 48 run partnership between Sean Williams and Sikandar Raza followed before van Meekeren had Williams caught for 28.

Raza eventually scored 40 from 24 balls before he was dismissed by Bas de Leede and there were no further double digit scores for the ZImbabweans as they were bowled out for 117. All wickets fell to the Dutch pace attack with Paul van Meekeren the pick of the bunch, taking 3-29 and Roelof van der Merwe bowled the solitary over of spin.

The Dutch reply was built around a 73 run partnership between Max O'Dowd and Tom Cooper. When Cooper was the second man out for 32, the Netherlands were 90-2 with just 27 needed in 7.1 overs.

O'Dowd was dismissed for 52, scored from 47 balls, with a run a ball 12 by Bas de Leede helping to secure the five wicket win for the Netherlands.

The Netherlands will next be in action on Sunday when they play South Africa. A win could be enough to secure a top four finish in the group and qualify for the 2024 tournament should other results go their way.