The last time the Netherlands and USA played a one-day match against each other was the 2004 ICC Six Nations Challenge. The Dutch won that day but the the Americans would go on to win the tournament and qualify for that year's ICC Champions Trophy, their sole appearance at a major global event to date.

Cricket in the USA should have moved on from then. The days of mutliple ICC suspensions under USACA are behind them and the team is younger - eight of that 2004 team were over 35 (with five over 40) compared with just one played aged 35 and most under 30 in today's line-up.

But in reality, despite long being a darling of some in ICC management, depsite all the chances they were given during suspensions and an expulsion, despite all the hype over Major League Cricket (and the associated Minor League), the national team doesn't appear to have moved on at all, and may even have gone backwards.

Their batting line-up today played the game like an ODI from the 1980s. Not a single player scored at faster than a run a ball. Shayan Jahangir's 71 from 86 balls was the top score. Gajanand Singh and Jessy Singh scored 33 and 38 respectively, but both took up over 50 balls in the process.

The Dutch bowling attack - hardly one that strikes fear into the opposition - shared the wickets around, with all six bowlers taking one or two. The USA crawled to 211-8 in a display that veteran US cricket reporter Peter Della Penna could only desribe as "incredibly boring".

In the early stages of the Dutch reply, Ali Khan - playing his first match after a two game suspension for a verbal breech of the ICC code of conduct - caught Vikramjit Singh off his own bowling with just 17 runs on the board. He celebrated the wicket by taking some tape out of his pocket and covering his mouth with it in reference to said suspension. What could be a funny celebration during a succesful run was frankly embarassing in a team that had already lost their previous two matches and were on track to lose a third.

The Dutch were on 83 when Bas de Leede was the fourth man out, falling in the 22nd over, but a 72 run partnership between Teja Nidamanuru and Scott Edwards went a long way to chasing down the target. The partnership ended when Nidamanuru top-edged a sweep to short fine-leg having scored 58.

Edwards batted on and scored an unbeaten 67 from 60 balls to help secure a five wicket win. The defeat meant that USA were eliminated from contention for a Super Six place, and therefore from World Cup qualification. Ali Khan wasn't on the field at this point having left it after bowling four overs with an unspecified illness. Lucky him.