The Netherlands’ performance against India in Delhi on Wednesday was a lot like the proverbial curate’s egg: parts of it were excellent. But fine performances by Pieter Seelaar and skipper Peter Borren in particular were insufficient to cause more than a momentary flutter in the home supporters’ hearts, and the Indian victory was comfortable enough in the end.

Coach Peter Drinnen had decided that, with Borren recovered from the side strain which had prevented his bowling in the first three matches, he could afford to strengthen the batting, and seamers Berend Westdijk and Bernie Loots made way for opener Eric Szwarczynski and allrounder Brad Kruger in the Dutch eleven.

This meant that Alexei Kervezee could drop down into the middle order, with Szwarczynski joining his VRA clubmate Wesley Barresi at the start of the innings.

Borren won the toss for the fourth time in a row, and reverted to the policy of batting first which had produced the side’s most convincing performance so far, in their opening match against England.

And it bore immediate fruit, as Szwarczynski and Barresi put on a solid 56 for the first wicket. Indian skipper Dhoni had opted for spin as early as the fourth over on a slow, low pitch where runs were hard to come by, but the openers had got the innings rolling in conditions which hardly suited their natural style of batting.

Once they departed, however, Szwarczynski bowled by leg-spinner Piyush Chawla’s wrong’un and Barresi trapped in front by left-armer Yuvraj Singh, the innings stalled. The ten overs between Barresi’s dismissal and the return of left-arm fast man Ashish Nehra produced just 36 runs – and what was worse from a Dutch point of view, they also included the loss of Ryan ten Doeschate, caught on the long off boundary the first time he attempted to hit Yuvraj over the top.

Nehra induced Tom Cooper to edge his first delivery to keeper Dhoni, and when Zaheer Khan had Bas Zuiderent leg-before in the following over the Netherlands had slumped from 99 for two to 101 for five.

The spectre of another miserably low total was beginning to loom, and when Tom de Grooth was run out for the second time in as many innings with only another six runs added, a debacle seemed to come a step closer.

But this brought Borren to the crease, and he immediately declared his intentions by despatching the third ball he received to the midwicket boundary. It was the first four for nine overs, and in the circumstances a sign of the ‘brave cricket’ the Dutch skipper had promised but which his side had so far largely failed to produce.

Kervezee, too, started to increase the momentum, but then he hit a dreadful Chawla long hop straight to deep midwicket, and the Netherlands were 127 for seven. With Borren going after Yuvraj, he and Kruger had got the score up to 147 by the end of the 42nd over, and the Dutch took their powerplay.

Kruger hit Chawla’s first ball gloriously through the covers for four before running himself out off the second, but two splendid blows from Borren meant that 17 came from the over. And with Mudassar Bukhari belting a six and a four off Nehra’s next, there was at last some real momentum in the Dutch innings.

42 runs came from the powerplay, but with Khan removing first Borren and then Bukhari in the space of four deliveries the innings came to a close before the powerplay did. Borren’s 36-ball 38 with three fours and two sixes was a great effort, while Bukhari’s 18-ball 21 gave his captain excellent support.

Khan had the best bowling figures for India with three for 20, but it was the spin quartet of Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Chawla and Yuvraj which had strangled the Dutch innings and confined them to a modest 189.

Defending a low total, the last thing a side wants to see is Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar walking to the middle, and Bukhari and Ten Doeschate could have been forgiven for finding the prospect intimidating. And the Indian openers fully justified any such anxiety, taking full advantage of anything misdirected and plundering 59 runs off the first seven overs.

Now Borren introduced Seelaar into the attack, and at first it seemed as if the slaughter would only be redoubled. Sehwag hammered his first delivery over the extra cover fence, and deftly played the second down through the gully for four. But he cut the third straight to Kervezee at point, and he was gone for 39, made from 28 deliveries with five fours and two sixes.

Promoted to three, Yusuf Pathan began as if he, too, were determined to get the game over with as quickly as possible, but then Seelaar produced five minutes which he will probably relive for the rest of his days.

It was his second wicket which was the big one: Tendulkar looked to come down the pitch, Seelaar held the ball back, the batsman was into his shot early, was beaten by the spin, got under the shot as the bat turned in his hands, and Kruger took a very good catch on the long off boundary. It was a classic spin bowler’s wicket, and to pull it off against the greatest batsman of his, and possibly anyone else’s, generation is the stuff of legend.

By comparison, the rather soft return catch provided by Pathan four balls later was routine, but it meant the left-armer had three for 22, and his haul included both Sehwag and Tendulkar.

It also meant that India were 82 for three, and needed to shift to Plan B. Things proceeded much more sedately now, with Borren emphasizing just how much his variations of pace had been missed with an eight-over spell in which he conceded only 33 runs and claimed the wicket of Virat Kohli.

And when Bukhari came back to remove the dangerous Gautam Gambhir it was 139 for five: 51 were still needed, and another quick wicket or two would give the Dutch a real chance.

It was, however, not to be: Yuvraj and Dhoni snuffed out any such pretensions with an unbroken stand of 52, and India won with thirteen and a half overs to spare. Yuvraj’s 73-ball 51 earned him another Man of the Match award.

As Borren said after the match, there were enough positive features in this performance to give the Dutch confidence as they go into their two final matches, against Bangladesh and Ireland. Both will be tough, especially if the opposition still has an outside chance of making the quarter-finals, but the Netherlands squad will be determined not to go home empty-handed, and they still have plenty to prove.