The Dutch women’s side will return from South Africa this week with a strong sense of achievement, even though they will be naturally disappointed at having failed to qualify for the Women’s World Cup and at losing Sunday’s third place play-off to their great European rivals Ireland.

Most important, by finishing second in their group they made sure of their first major goal: retaining their full ODI and Test status for another four years.

That is vital, not only as a basis for top-quality fixtures, but also as a lever in the battle to raise funding for the women’s game in The Netherlands.

And even in that final defeat by Ireland they have the satisfaction of knowing that they performed a good deal better than when the sides last met, in last season’s European Championship, when the Dutch girls were dismissed for 56 chasing Ireland’s 179.

This time they fought their way to 171, well short of the Irish total of 237, but nevertheless a respectable effort and a platform for mounting a serious challenge in future to Ireland as the top European Associate country in women’s cricket.

Hampered by a serious injury to Marijn Nijman, who fractured a knee-cap in the opening match, and with opening bowler Jolet Hartenhof also out of the final game through injury, the Dutch nevertheless competed well, and at 102 for two they had a chance of pulling off a notable victory.

Wickets fell as they tried to up the tempo, however, and with Lotte Egging now also hurt and unable to bat, the innings came to an end 66 runs short of the target off the final ball of the scheduled 50 overs.

There were some fine individual performances throughout the week, not least by 41-year-old off spinner Caroline de Fouw, who shared the Player of the Tournament award with Pakistan’s Sana Mir. De Fouw took 10 wickets in five matches, averaging 10.20 and conceding a remarkable 2.04 runs per over.

An equally outstanding effort came from 19-year-old seamer Lotte Egging, who did the hat-trick to finish the Pakistan innings in Friday’s semi-final.

Skipper Helmien Rambaldo was clearly the pick of a batting line-up which frequently struggled, hitting 121 runs and recording her first ODI half-century with 59 against Bermuda. Annemarie Tanke and Pauline te Beest also played valuable individual innings, but the batting generally failed to find the consistency necessary at this level.

Nevertheless, Rambaldo was upbeat at the end of the tournament.

‘I’m really proud of the way we performed,’ she said after the awards ceremony. ‘It’s been difficult with a series of injuries, but the other players really stood up when they were needed.

‘We’ve achieved one of our most important goals in keeping ODI and Test status, and while we’re disappointed not to be going to the World Cup, we now look forward to a summer programme with ODIs and perhaps another Test.’

The Dutch captain was also delighted for De Fouw, whose consistency with the ball she saw as one of the features of the competition, and for Egging.

‘Taking a hat trick in an ODI – that’s amazing. It’s a day she’ll never forget,’ Rambaldo said.

She is also keen to see the Dutch squad build on the experience of the past week. ‘We need to play more high-level fixtures,’ she says, ‘with more games against good sides our cricket can only improve.’

So the success of this week throws out a challenge to the KNCB, which must now ensure that the players get more opportunity to test themselves against top-quality opposition. The gaps in level in women’s cricket are much greater than in the men’s game, and there is much work to be done if Ireland and The Netherlands are ever to be able to compete on equal terms with sides like Pakistan and South Africa