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On the opening day of the ICC Women's World Cup Qualifier in South Africa, Europe's three sides produced a disappointing set of results. Ireland suffered a shock defeat by Pakistan, whilst Scotland fell at the hands of Zimbabwe. The Netherlands was the only European side to triumph, beating underdogs PNG.

Dutch skipper Helmien Rambaldo was delighted to get her side’s ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier campaign off to a winning start as they defeated Papua New Guinea by 8 wickets.

After reducing their opponents to 102 all out, with PNG captain Kune Amini top scoring with a patient 32 off 65 balls, the Netherlands knocked off their target with 21.4 overs to spare. 

“It was a good win and we were very pleased with the game today. We bowled well and we batted well so we are very happy” said Rambaldo.

Having travelled to South Africa from cold conditions back at home, the Netherlands’ batters had a chance to spend some valuable time in the middle with De Beest (34*), Wattenberg (20*) and Rambaldo (17) all making contributions.

Rambaldo also paid tribute to her opponents who were playing their first ever competitive game on a turf wicket.

“I think they did well. They were really trying to score runs and we’re all very impressed with their bowling side. They have good pace bowling.”

As for PNG, Amini was happy with their start to the campaign.

“We’ve never played on turf before so we tried our best and got some runs” she said. “It was a good experience and we want to improve in the next couple of games.”

Elsewhere Ireland and Scotland were less fortunate as both sides suffered defeats.

A brilliant team performance from Pakistan gave them an opening day 57-run victory at the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier over a strongly fancied Ireland side.

Sana Mir was named Player of the Match for her brilliant spell of 2-17, but captain Urooj Mumtaz was absolutely delighted with all of her side’s efforts

 She said: “The girls did exceptionally well and I am extremely proud to be captain of the Pakistan side. It was a great team effort – everybody contributed with the bat and the ball and the fielding was excellent.

“Pulling off this victory gives the team a lot of confidence for the rest of the week.”

An excellent opening partnership of 60 set Pakistan on their way, after winning the toss and batting, with Tasqeen Qadeer (30) and Bismah Maroof (18), both in good touch.

Although many Pakistan players got themselves in, nobody went onto make a big score, although six run outs, five of which involved Isobel Joyce, didn’t help their cause and in the end they may have felt that 165-9 wasn’t going to be enough.

Ireland started strongly in reply, but once their opening partnership of 40 was ended, they lost regular wickets against a well balanced Pakistani bowling line-up, with only the Joyce sisters making more than twenty.

Irish skipper Heather Whelan was left disappointed by the result and thought there was plenty of work to do in both the batting and bowling departments.

She said: “Bowling wise we need to cut out our wides and no balls – we bowled far too many wides which is not acceptable at this level.

“Batting wise our top batters really need to start coming through for us in the next rest of the tournament.”

Pakistan faces Zimbabwe tomorrow, while Ireland will be hoping to improve their performance levels against Scotland.

Zimbabwe beat Scotland by 75 runs, with Zimbabwe making 147 all out, and then bowling Scotland out for just 72.

Full match reports on all games will be available on the official event website. Please go to www.icc-cricket.com