The Netherlands bid farewell to captain Luuk van Troost with a thumping eight-wicket win over Scotland in the battle of the World Cup Group A minnows on Thursday.

Van Troost dropped himself from the match because of a lack of form leaving acting-skipper Jeroen Smits to pay a glowing tribute to the 37-year-old.

"Van Troost is honest and dropped himself in the best interests of the team. He had wanted to make this his farewell appearance, but couldn't make it. He was depressed and so was I."

The Netherlands, who won the toss, elected to field first and shot their opponents out for 136 in 34.1 overs with new-ball bowler Billy Stelling grabbing with a career-best 3-12.

Ryan ten Doeschate (70 not out) and Bas Zuiderent (43 not out) then shared an unbroken 102-run stand for the third wicket to guide the Netherlands to a comfortable with half of their overs in the bag.

Smits said it was a different match for his team after being thrashed by the world's top two teams Australia and South Africa.

"We were pumped up by South African captain Graeme Smith's comments who backed Scotland to win this match," he said.

"They don't know what's going on with the associate teams and we have proved a better team by winning this match."

Scotland captain Craig Wright came down hard on his batsmen.

"I can't explain what went wrong," said the Scotland captain, for whom tail-ender Glenn Rogers top-scored with 26.

"Until the practice games our batting was not a worry, but problems seem to have resurfaced and most of the guys fell for soft dismissals which are hard to explain."

The Scotland captain, however, felt his team would lift themseleves before their next assignment in the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in September.

"One horrendous defeat doesn't make us a bad team. It is disappointing to lose in the manner we did and now some of the guys will have to ask themseleves some questions," said Wright, whose team also ended winless in the 1999 World Cup.

The Netherlands achieved their second win in the World Cup following their win over Namibia in 2003.

Australia and South Africa, the other teams in Group A, have already qualified for the next round of Super Eight. They meet each other on Saturday.

(Article: Copyright © 2007 AFP)