Flower, working the ball around the field in contrast to Whittall’s more flamboyant strokeplay, reached his fifty off 55 balls. Almost immediately afterwards, Whittall’s promising innings was cut short at 30 by a brilliant diving catch at deep midwicket by Bas Zuiderent as he pulled Kloppenburg.

At times, though, the Dutch ground fielding was disappointing, with several errors allowing the Zimbabweans extra runs. But, apart from their early drop of Flower, their catching was better, as Flower found to his cost, when on 71 he sliced a ball into the gully where Esmeijer took a smart catch. Zimbabwe were now 165 for four in the 35th over.

This was not necessarily a major handicap for Zimbabwe, as it brought the aggressive Blignaut to the wicket. After a relatively quiet start, he began to unleash his full power on the hapless Dutch bowlers, pulling and driving fiercely. His fifty came off 32 balls, but the Dutch adopted the policy of bowling straight to deep-set fields and cleverly had him caught on the leg side for 58. In the 45th over, Zimbabwe were 245 for five.

Streak was soon hitting powerfully, but lost Ebrahim for 32, swinging across the line to be bowled by de Leede. Doug Marillier (1) was trapped lbw, swinging across a straight full toss from Lefebvre, but with Tatenda Taibu as his partner Streak hammered 44 off 22 balls and took Zimbabwe past 300 before falling to a catch in the deep off the final ball of the innings.

Craig Wishart opened the Zimbabwe batting with Mark Vermeulen, restored to the team in the absence of Grant Flower. Wishart sought to dominate from the start, driving Edgar Schiferli to the cover boundary in the first over and would have secured another had a straight drive not hit the stumps at the bowler’s end.

He drove Roland Lefebvre for two boundaries off successive balls and so assured did he appear that a sequel to his 172 not out against Namibia looked a possibility. However, he fell for 21 off 22 balls, superbly caught off a thick edge by wicket-keeper Jeroen Smits, courageously standing to the stumps to Lefebvre, and a superb cameo came to an abrupt end.

Andy Flower began slowly, and uncharacteristically missed a few runs off deliveries that would normally be meat and drink to him. He offered a hard high chance to slip, which was missed, when on 4; he promptly celebrated with two off-side boundaries and a leg-glance for four in the same over from Tim de Leede.

The Dutch bowling was quite accurate but without the threat posed by the top international attacks that Zimbabwean batsmen have had to face. They managed to bowl 20 overs in the 70 minutes before drinks.

Opener Mark Vermeulen, restored to the side in place of Grant Flower, was again visibly nervous to start with, but slowly found the confidence to play some of his booming drives. He was just beginning to dominate when he chose the wrong ball to cut from Feiko Kloppenburg and dragged the ball on to his stumps; out for 27, and Zimbabwe were 82 for two.

Guy Whittall has not been in good form recently, but he came in at number four with obvious determination to put things right, and to do so with positive strokeplay. He quickly ran to 24 at a run a ball, pulling and driving powerfully, including a straight six off Jacob-Jan Esmeijer.

There was always the chance of rain later on, though, and for that reason Zimbabwean captain Heath Streak would have preferred to bowl had he won the toss. But it was Roland Lefebvre who called correctly, and the Dutch captain chose to put the Zimbabweans in on a good, if somewhat slow, batting pitch.

The teams were as follows:

Zimbabwe: Craig Wishart, Mark Vermeulen, Andy Flower, Dion Ebrahim, Guy Whittall, +Tatenda Taibu, Andy Blignaut, Doug Marillier, *Heath Streak, Brian Murphy, Douglas Hondo.