Worcestershire Royals began their CB40 campaign with a 9 wicket defeat, under the Duckworth-Lewis method, against the Netherlands at Kidderminster.

Rain delayed the start of the match and eventually play got underway at 3:45pm, with the match reduced to 27 overs per side. Worcestershire were put into bat and soon lost Moeen Ali (15) when he tamely hit a Mudassar Bukhari delivery straight to Tim Gruijters at mid-on. Michael Klinger was the next victim when he was caught by Tom Cooper at mid-off from Tom Heggelman to leave the Royals on 32-2 in the 8th over.

With the dark clouds looming overhead Vikram Solanki and James Cameron kept the scoreboard ticking along as they reached their 50 partnership in 10 overs and Solanki had got to his 50 off 69 balls but the third-wicket partnership ended on 78 when Cameron, going for a massive hit, was caught by Heggelman at deep mid-wicket off Bukhari for 38, off 41 balls.

Daryl Mitchell joined Solanki and soon moved on to 20 when he was dropped by Heggelman at deep cover whilst Solanki had hit four fours and a six in his 63 off 80 balls until he was caught by Michael Swart on the long-on boundary off Bukhari, with the score on 151-4 in the 25th over. Mitchell (38*) and Alexei Kervezee (15*) then added 21 more runs in the remaining 7 balls as the Royals ended on 172-4 off their 27 overs.

Further rain delayed the start of the Dutch innings and when play resumed the visitors were initially chasing a revised target of 152 off 22 overs. Jack Shantry struck in the 3rd over when Swart was caught by Aneesh Kapil at mid-off, with the score on 7. A further break for rain saw the loss of three overs, with a required target of 139 in 19 overs, and Stephan Myburgh and Cameron Borgas were in no mood to hang around as they took the attack to the Royals bowlers. Myburgh was the first to get to his 50 off 33 balls, with five fours and three sixes, and eventually he was unbeaten on 74 off 50 balls, with seven fours and four sixes. Borgas then got to his 50 off 43 balls, with five fours and three sixes, by hitting a 6 over deep mid-wicket to end the match as their unbeaten second-wicket partnership of 132 secured a well-earned win for the Dutch.