BASSETERRE (St Kitts), March 22: Billy Stelling grabbed three wickets as the Netherlands overwhelmed fellow associate nation Scotland by eight wickets in their Group A match on Thursday.

Medium pacer Stelling took career-best figures of three for 12 from eight overs to send the Scots, who were put in to bat, tumbling out for 136 in 34.1 overs.

The Dutch, who reached 61 for two before the interval for lunch arrived, romped to victory with Ryan ten Doeschate striking 13 fours and one six in making 70 off 68 balls in the unbroken 103-run stand with opener Bas Zuiderent (43).

Both teams are aiming to win their first match at the tournament following crushing defeats by champions Australia and top-ranked South Africa.

The South African-born Stelling's previous best performance was the three for 41.

Stelling owed some of his success to Luuk van Troost, the Dutch captain, who dropped himself from the team to make room for the seamer.

Stelling might have taken more wickets had Daan van Bunge, who was hit for six sixes in an over by South Africa's Herschelle Gibbs last week, not dropped two slip catches off his bowling.

The Scotland batsmen paid the price for injudicious stroke-play on a pitch that offered movement off the seam with the new ball.

That made the Netherlands's collection of trundlers look lethal as they reduced Scotland to 15 for four in the seventh over.

Ryan Watson and Neil McCallum steadied the innings with a stand of 24 for the fifth wicket before McCallum and Colin Smith added 38 runs to push Scotland past the half-century mark.

Glenn Rogers, top-scorer with 26, and McCallum (24) were the only batsmen to cross the 20-run mark.