Brief scores: Netherlands 362 for 7 (Vikramjit Singh 110, Barresi 97, Bilal 3-75) beat Oman 246 for 6 (Ayaan 105*, Shoaib 46, Dutt 3-31) by 74 runs on the DLS method

The Netherlands kept their 50-over World Cup dream alive by beating Oman by 74 runs in Harare, but the margin wasn’t enough to catapult them past Zimbabwe and Scotland on net run rate.

In order to qualify, the Dutch need Zimbabwe to lose to Scotland on Tuesday and must then beat the Scots by a huge margin on Thursday.

If Zimbabwe win, the hosts will join Sri Lanka as the two qualifiers for the showpiece event in India in October.

After losing the toss on a cloudy and blustery Monday morning, Vikramjit Singh’s maiden ODI century followed by an attacking 97 by Wesley Barresi helped Netherlands post their second-highest ODI total of 362-7 in a rain-affected 48-over innings.

In response, Oman were restricted to 246-6, spearheaded by Ayaan Khan’s maiden ODI hundred and Dutch off-spinner Aryan Dutt’s career-best figures of 3-31. By the time their innings was brought to a premature end in the 44th over by bad light, the Asian side were 74 runs behind on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method (DLS) par-score of 320.

Openers Singh and Max O’Dowd once again set the tone at the top with a 117-run stand and laid the foundation for a strong finish having survived a probing new-ball spell.

Cover drives

Singh’s career-best knock featured his trademark cover drives, cuts and leg-side pulls which fetched him eleven fours and two sixes. Barresi, on the other hand, nearly missed out on his second International ton but his 65-ball inning was laced with ten fours and three sixes.

The duo placed as much importance on running between the wickets, a virtue which has been a hallmark of the brand of cricket the Netherlands have played in recent years, as they did on hitting boundaries with excellent use of their feet.

“It’s one of our KPIs, we have to run 22 twos. We like to run a lot of twos. It puts other teams under pressure and [helps us] be out with intent,” Vikramjit Singh told a press conference.

“I have waited a long time for my hundred so getting it after 23 innings feels good,” he added.

Bas de Leede (39 from 19 balls) and Saqib Zulfiqar (33 from 17 balls) then provided the finishing fireworks at the death with quickfire cameos, sharing eleven boundaries between them. It helped that the Omani bowlers bowled as many as 36 extras and were plundered for 165 runs in the last 14 overs.

As the pitch flattened out, Dutt dismissed in-form batter Kashyap Prajapati, Oman’s centurion against Zimbabwe, and Mohammad Nadeem cheaply either side of Oman’s stand-in captain, Aqib Ilyas’ wicket off Ryan Klein to reduce the Asian counterparts to 102-4 within 20 overs of the chase.

Any hopes of a collapse, and a possible bump of net run rate for the Dutch, were dashed as Ayaan Khan and Shoaib Khan added 112 runs for the fifth wicket, their side’s highest partnership at the World Cup qualifiers.

Ayaan Khan eventually brought up his century, containing eleven fours and two sixes, but wasn’t without luck after being dropped thrice in the field and remained unbeaten on 105.

The Netherlands’ final Super Six match is against Scotland on Thursday, July 6.