Holland paid their first visit to Ireland by way of a return for last year's match at The Hague. Ireland won easily in the end but Holland played much better than in 1970. They came on tour with 14 players. On the way to Ireland they had an abandoned match (rain) against MCC at Lords for one day and a one-day match against Hamstead. On their way home from Ireland they played the Sussex Martlets in a three-day match at Arundel.

A lot of rain fell on Castle Avenue in the weeks before this match. No rain fell during the match although the weather was overcast. The wicket was soft and drying all the time. It was a good toss to win and Monteith spun Ireland to victory. In two successive matches he had taken 24 wickets for 192 runs. Ireland had not won two successive matches since 1947, had not won in Dublin since 1961 and had now won at Castle Avenue for the first time in the nine matches played there. J Harrison was unable to play for Ireland and was replaced by BA O'Brien. The substitute would have been G Crothers of Woodvale but he was not available. Holland fielded five of last year's team and two others came but did not play in this match.

When the match began the wicket was damp and dead. Pigot and Reith got Ireland off to a quick start, mostly at Onstein's expense. In five overs he conceded 26 runs while Rikse's six overs cost 14. In 30 minutes the score was 39 with seven fours. Field placings were attacking. Reith gave one difficult chance off Rikse. He pulled a short ball but Van Meurs close in at square leg could not hold it. Van Mel, at medium pace, replaced Onstein at 39, and Burki, medium, replaced Rikse at 44. 51 came up in 55 minutes off 16 overs with Pigot 26 and Reith 24. The rate slowed and 16 came in the next half hour as fields became more defensive. At 67 Van Wel bowled Reith for 35 while he attempted a forcing back stroke. O'Brien stayed with Pigot to lunch, 21 more runs being scored. At lunch the score was 88-1, Pigot 42, O'Brien 4, the stand lasting 37 minutes. Vriens, off spin, bowled six overs before lunch but the wicket was still dead.

After lunch Onstein and Burki resumed the bowling. Pigot moved smoothly to 50, scored out of 98 in 133 minutes and 100 came up in 139 minutes. Vriens came back on at 107 and Smits, another off spin, came on at 110. The wicket was now taking spin. O'Brien had spent an hour over seven and he now opened up and hit three fours off Smits. Pigot had trouble with Vriens. At 134 he beat him with one ball and had caught by Bakker low at slip next ball. 134-2-66. Next over from Vriens, Bakker, at slip, repeated the operation to dismiss O'Brien. This was a brilliant diving right-handed catch off a genuine cut. 137-3-23. At 143 Van Wel replaced Smits. Wickets now began to fall regularly as the wicket became difficult but it remained slow-paced. Anderson and O'Riordan added 16 and then Anderson pulled a long hop and was well held low at short mid-wicket by Spits. 153-4-11. O'Riordan slashed Van Wel low to gully's hands. Then Dineen rushed at Vriens with his head up and was stumped. 162-5-1. At tea O'Riordan (26) and Lewis (7) were together and the total was 181-5. The second session was Holland's.

Just after tea, at 182, Vriens at gully held a splendid one-handed catch off Burki to dismiss O'Riordan who had hit the ball very hard. At the same score Lewis tried to cut the off spin of Vriens and was bowled. Duffy and Monteith added 19. Then at 201 (in 265 minutes) Monteith hit Burki to cover point. Goodwin was dropped at the wicket and then caught there for 0. Duffy and Colhoun seemed to go into a trance in their last wicket stand. They added nine in 24 minutes before Goodwin mercifully declared. Duffy was 24 not out and Colhoun failed to score at all. Vriens bowled 33 overs in taking 4-39 and some very good catches were held. At one point Vriens took 2-0 in 38 balls.

Holland had 47 minutes batting and made 15-1. Monteith came on for O'Riordan to bowl the ninth over with the score at 10. With the last ball of his third over Van der Vegt was LBW for seven. Van Wel and Rikse were together at close of play. Goodwin and O'Riordan bowled next morning. Van Wel gave a difficult leg side stumping chance in Goodwin's first over when still 0. At 18 Van Wel mis-pulled a long hop from O'Riordan and Pigot moved from short leg to catch the ball on the off side. Monteith and Duffy now bowled together. Monteith's first 11 overs conceded only four runs and he bowled 47 balls without conceding a run in one period. In the first hour of today's play only 15 runs were scored. At 33 Rikse was cleverly trapped lbw by Duffy having batted 73 minutes for seven. Holland's best player, Bakker, the captain, was next. Duffy bowled him a very good over. He set about Monteith and hit him for 8 in 1 over and a huge six over long on in the next. He snicked a two next ball and hit his wicket trying to cut the following one. 56-4-19. Meanwhile, the youthful Spits was playing very correctly. At 60 Duffy dropped him, when 13, off a difficult catch and bowled to which he had to dive forward. Spits and Schoonheim then added 50 straddling the lunch interval. Spits hit Monteith for 10 in the last over before lunch - taken at 77-4 with Spits 25 and Schoonheim 5. Goodwin and O'Riordan bowled for 20 minutes after lunch but at 93 Monteith came back for Goodwin. He bowled uphill throughout the innings which seemed strange. 100 came in 176 minutes and the pair added 50 in 48 minutes. Duffy came back with the score on 105. At 106 Spits was caught low and left-handed at first slip off Monteith. His 37 occupied 126 minutes. It was a good debut for this young player. Van Meurs lasted two balls. He snicked the first for two and skied the second to cover. Off the last ball of Monteith's next over Onstein edged the ball to Goodwin at slip. 118-7-2. Schoonheim now took over. He began to strike the ball hard and to "farm" the strike. He scored all 20 of a stand with Burki, including three fours off Monteith in one over. He was then bowled forcing Duffy off the back foot. His 48 was a splendid innings lasting 76 minutes. Next over Monteith bowled Burki for 0. Vriens and Smits added 13 but Goodwin dropped Smits at silly mid-off off Duffy at 139. At 151 Duffy bowled Smits. Ireland bowled 79.4 overs and Monteith took 6-84 in 30 overs. He bowled well but his line was still a little wayward on the offside. Duffy took 3-27 in 21.4 overs.

Ireland went in again and did not bat really well. They had 50 minutes to bat to tea and scored 31 without loss, Reith 19 and Pigot 9. Smits and Vriens had a bowl before tea but it was not until after tea that the wicket became lively again following its inter-innings rolling. At 37 Pigot (10) was lbw to Smits without playing a stroke. At 44 Reith swept carelessly at Smits and was bowled for 29. 50 came up in 80 minutes. Then, at 59, Vriens took two wickets in three balls. He had O'Brien caught at the wicket and O'Riordan at short square leg by one that rose quickly. Anderson and Dineen added 23 and Van Mel replaced Smits. At 82 Anderson was lbw offering no stroke to Vriens. Lewis came in and scored all 21 of the runs added for the sixth wicket with Dineen. Lewis batted 28 minutes before being caught at the wicket off Smits who had returned at 93. Vriens had Duffy caught at the wicket at 104. At close of play Ireland were 112-7 off 57 overs. Dineen was 14 (in 80 minutes) and Monteith 1.

Burki and Vriens began the bowling on Day 3 but Smits soon replaced Burki. Monteith played sensibly until stumped off Smits for 23 at 147. At this stage 35 had come in 32 minutes. Two overs later, score unchanged, Smits had Goodwin caught at slip to complete "a pair". Dineen began to swing and was caught at the wicket off Smits for 31 with the score at 156, after being dropped at slip by Bakker off Vriens at 155. The off-spinners Smits and Vriens shared wickets and bowled 67.2 overs out of a total of 80.2 overs.

At 12 46 pm Holland set out after 221 to win. O'Riordan bowled Van der Vegt for 0 in his second over. Monteith came on for O'Riordan with the total on 11 and had Van Wel caught at slip in his first over. O'Riordan replaced Goodwin at 20. Bakker hit Monteith high to long-on where if Lewis had been positioned on the line there would have been a catch. The score at lunch was 25-2, with Spits nine and Bakker nine. At 32 Monteith lured Spits forward and he was stumped. Schoonheim came in and on himself and Bakker the Dutch hopes rested. They added 27. Then Duffy replaced O'Riordan and Monteith took two wickets with successive balls. He bowled Bakker (37 in 61 minutes) around his legs while sweeping and had Van Meurs edging his first ball to the wicket-keeper. At 71 Monteith bowled a higher and slower ball to Rikse who skied to O'Brien at deep mid-off. At 78 Onstein was caught by O'Riordan at silly-mid-off, a dolly catch. At 82 the last three wickets fell. Goodwin replaced Duffy. Today he had "bagged a pair", taken no wickets and dropped a catch. Goodwin bowled Schoonheim with his third ball and Vriens with his fifth! Burki was stumped in Monteith's next over. In 42.3 overs Holland were all out and Monteith had 7-42 in 17.3 overs. The two teams mingled very well and the Dutch enjoyed their first visit, except for the defeat.