McCallum prevents Scots' humiliation

Neil McCallum, pictured, and Majid Haq halted an alarming slide of wickets to take Scotland to victory

Scotland were forced into an unlikely fight for victory over the Netherlands on a remarkable final day of their ICC Intercontinental Cup match in Deventer.

The hosts resumed their second innings at 168 for eight this morning, still 13 runs adrift of making Scotland bat again, and the result appeared a formality.

But Peter Borren advanced from his overnight 52 not out to 109 and received superb support from number 10 Pieter Seelaar as the Dutch set their visitors 77 to win - and then incredibly reduced them to six for five.

But Neil McCallum and Majid Haq put on an unbroken stand of 59 to see them to a four-wicket win and stave off complete humiliation.

Borren and Seelaar added 67 for the ninth wicket, Seelaar digging in as his captain accrued the runs.

But once Borren was caught by McCallum off Matthew Parker’s bowling, Seelaar became the aggressor.

He made 30 in all and added 22 for the last wicket with last man Berend Westdijk, whose dogged part in proceedings was ended when he was bowled by Parker for a valuable 28-ball duck.

That ended the innings at 257 and Scotland’s target appeared routine, but they were quickly plunged into chaos by Mark Jonkman.

The seamer’s first nine overs yielded figures of 5-10 as Scotland lost Dougie Lockhart, Preston Mommsen, Qasim Sheikh, Richie Berrington and Gregor Maiden - for nought, two, one, one and nought - with only six on the board.

Parker followed to make it 18 for six, but McCallum survived the mayhem to make 34 not out and Haq hit seven fours in reaching the same score from just 31 balls as the pair saw their side home.

The result leaves Scotland top of the table with 69 points from four games - three wins and a draw.

They lead nearest challengers Afghanistan by 12 - with the Dutch, for their part, fifth of the seven teams on 15 points.