Those who believe that qualifiers have no place in the World Cup received a resounding answer from eleven men in orange in Nagpur on Tuesday, as a determined Dutch side battled every inch of the way against an England team which at times seemed strangely at odds with itself.

If in the end it was the professionalism of England which prevailed over the evident limitations of the Dutch, Peter Borren�s men had played throughout as equals, and there were again times � as there had been at Lord�s eighteen months ago � when one might have been forgiven for thinking that it was the Netherlands who were the seasoned pros and England who were the minnows.

The Dutch hero in defeat, Man of the Match Ryan ten Doeschate, is, of course, a professional to his fingertips, and his century � his fourth in ODIs but his (and indeed, the Netherlands�) first against a Full member � was a superbly judged effort. Tom Cooper, too, whose 47 out of a stand of 76 with Ten Doeschate created the platform for the highest-ever total by an Associate country against a Test-playing nation, is a full-time cricketer whose attitude makes a big contribution to the side as a whole.

But it was above all a team effort, and the Netherlands made their intention to stand toe to toe against the English evident from the moment Borren, having won the toss, boldly decided to bat, surprising even Ten Doeschate, as the Essex man revealed after the match.

Alexei Kervezee and Wesley Barresi went onto the attack from the outset, and they were aided by some pretty unfocused bowling from James Anderson and Stuart Broad with the new ball. If they both departed somewhat tamely in the end, their 50 off the first eleven overs had set the tone, and Ten Doeschate and Cooper then set about building a serious total as England�s tally of errors began to mount.

Bas Zuiderent never settled, but Tom de Grooth, coming in with 17 overs to go, produced something of his Lord�s form with a 31-ball 28, and then Borren, who joined Ten Doeschate with the total on 213 and seven overs remaining, ensured that a heavy toll was exacted in the batting powerplay. 50 runs came from those five overs, and England�s bowlers and fielders were very obviously on the ropes.

Ten Doeschate, too, was struggling in the tough conditions, but he judged his acceleration perfectly: his first fifty had come from 59 deliveries, but the second took just 39, and by the time he finally holed out at deep midwicket his 119 had come from 110 balls with nine fours and three sixes.

The moment when he reached his hundred was a strange replay of the climax of that match at Lord�s: on 98, he flicked Broad � of all people � to fine leg for a single, and the return rebounded off the stumps, beat a diving cover and ran all the way to the rope. It could not have been more appropriate that it was Borren who was in the middle with him.

The Dutch skipper, clearly in his element, smacked 35 off 24 deliveries, surviving another extraordinary episode when he was bowled by Broad only to be called back because England had failed to put the required four men in the circle, and his side closed on 292 for six. It had been a truly impressive effort, but everyone knew that they would only be able to defend it if they grabbed early wickets, or at least, bowled with iron control.

In the end, they achieved neither. Mudassar Bukhari, debutant Berend Westdijk and Bernard Loots were no more successful in maintaining line and length than the England seamers had been, and Strauss and Pietersen were able to rattle up 105 in less than 18 overs.

Ten Doeschate and Pieter Seelaar managed to cut the scoring rate somewhat, and it was Seelaar who removed Pietersen when he failed to get to the pitch and Borren dived to his right at short cover to snaffle the catch.

But Strauss and Jonathan Trott proceeded relentlessly onward, and the Dutch were unable to stem the flow of runs. Bukhari returned to claim Strauss�s wicket when a century for the England captain had seemed inevitable, and then Trott fell to a fine leg-side stumping off a Ten Doeschate wide. Strauss�s 88 had come from 83 balls, and Trott�s 62 from 65.

That made it 224 for three with ten overs remaining, and the asking rate had crept up to a little over 7 an over. England had plenty of wickets in hand, however, and the batsmen were displaying a discipline and determination which had been all too lacking in the field.

Ten Doeschate added the scalp of Ian Bell with his final delivery, a textbook yorker, but Collingwood and Ravi Bopara paced the final phase of the chase to perfection, and the Dutch had no answer. The waywardness returned, and the winning runs, off a Loots full toss, came with eight balls to spare.

The Netherlands had won much admiration for the character of their performance, but the attack�s absence of teeth was all too evident, and coach Peter Drinnen will have plenty to think about before his side takes on the West Indies in Delhi on Monday.

Nevertheless, after the limp performances by Kenya and Canada in their opening matches, Borren and his side have shown that they are nobody�s pushovers, and they have done the Associates� cause a power of good. There�s a long, long way to go in this long drawn-out competition � which is emphatically not a function of the number of teams � but where they have led, let us hope others will be able to follow.