Another day, another defeat.

In what is becoming an all too familiar and progressively disturbing trend of the current African tour, Bermuda slumped to their fifth straight one-day international loss, going down to Holland by eight wickets at Sedgars Park in Potchefstroom yesterday.

While a number of factors, not least a growing injury crisis, contributed to the latest Tri-Series setback, this might have been the most lacklustre display by the Island team since they embarked on this gruelling expedition some four weeks ago.

Gus Logie?s men now have just two matches remaining, against Canada on Thursday and the Dutch again on Saturday, to restore their battered pride.

But they?ll be required to bat and bowl a whole lot better if they?re to emerge with any kind of success.

Holland, who picked up four win points as well as a batting bonus point yesterday, now sit atop the Tri-Series standings with nine points from two games. Canada have four from two and Bermuda are yet to get off the mark.

Their cause yesterday was hardly helped by the omission of strike bowlers Kevin Hurdle (stomach bug) and Ryan Steede (back strain), and the casualty list that can be ill-afforded in a 15-man squad, continued to grow during the match.

Dean Minors, who again impressed in his new role as opener, suffered a painful blow on the knee and was unable to keep wicket during the Dutch innings, and Saleem Mukuddem also failed to finish the game after appearing to twist his ankle as he tumbled over the boundary rope attempting to prevent a six.

But it would be all too easy to make excuses against a Holland side who had injury worries of their own.

Having won the toss, Bermuda got off to the best possible start with the experimental opening partnership of Clay Smith and Minors blazing the first 50 runs off 7.1 overs, raising the prospect of setting a huge target for the Dutch to chase.

But that, as it turned out, would be Bermuda?s best stand of the day.

Once Smith fell lbw to a wicked delivery from young Mark Jonkman which kept low, giving the bowler his first international wicket, the rest of the line-up folded like a pack of cards, too many of the batsmen guilty of poor shot selection.

A late partnership of 29 between top bat Saleem Mukuddem (43) and Hasan Durham (11) helped add some respectability to the total but Bermuda were guilty of failing to utilise the entire 50 overs and a total of 177 was never going to be sufficient to defend with a weakened attack and against a team containing the hard-hitting Ryan ten Doeschate (65).

The Essex county player has now cracked two centuries (Intercontinental Cup) and a half-century in his two matches against Bermuda on this tour, and added another 50 against Canada for good measure.

One-day skipper Irving Romaine conceded yesterday?s batting collapse contributed heavily to the defeat but lamented the injury problems which were preventing him from fielding his strongest side.

?Injuries have been such a big problem,? said Romaine. ?Without your two main strike bowlers it puts pressure on everyone else.

?We?re having to juggle our bowling line-up a lot more than we?d like to. We can?t seem to get a settled side.

?Mukuddem is having to open the bowling a lot more than he should be doing. And we?re having to use people like myself and David (Hemp) who we might not normally have to rely on.

?Today we won the toss, got a good start but their strike bowlers got Clay and myself with a couple of really good balls which kept low . . . there was nothand myself with a couple of really good balls which kept low . . . there was nothing we could do, and then we had something of a collapse.

?Our total of 177 was always going to be a hard to defend especially without our key bowlers.? Smith and Minors looked to be shaping up for a big partnership as they played exquisitely in the early overs, Smith crunching four fours including a stunning pull that screamed all along the ground to the boundary.

But when he went in the eighth over for 20 with the total on exactly 50, the foundation which the two openers had laid quickly crumbled.

Romaine, having added eight to the total, turned to see his middle stump cartwheeling down the ground after a gem of a delivery from Jonkman cut back inbetween bat and pad. And without any addition to the total of 65, Minors (27) mistimed his shot off Billy Stelling, offering ten Doeschate a low catch at forward point.

New bats Kwame Tucker and David Hemp cautiously attempted to repair the damage but neither looked entirely comfortable, Hemp caught in the slips off a no ball and then enjoying another ?life? when skipper Luuk van Troost spilled the simplest of catches at mid-on off Pieter Seelaar.

Tucker wasn?t so fortunate, caught by Seelaar at mid-on off Stelling for nine and suddenly from 50 without loss, Bermuda were in trouble at 89 for four.

Janeiro Tucker could contribute only six before he was trapped by Tim de Leede, Hemp?s luck finally ran out when, after making 33, he became de Leede?s second victim, caught behind by Jeroen Smits, and de Leede, later voted man-of-the-match, snared a third wicket thanks to a poor shot from Lionel Cann.

With six wickets down and 21 overs still remaining, Cann (2) will have no doubt regretted his big heave to mid-wicket which was comfortably taken by Stelling, and thrust Bermuda into an unescapable hole.

At 136 for seven, it was now left to Mukuddem and Durham to make the best of a hopeless situation and they did exceptionally well to add another 29 before Durham offered another catch to wicketkeeper Smits off Daan van Bunge.

Dwayne Leverock, who celebrated his maiden first class half-century against Holland last week, could only scramble two this time around, failing to make his ground as he hurried for a quick single, and his replacement, last man Stefan Kelly didn?t even get chance to face a ball, as Seelaar wrapped up the innings by bowling Mukuddem on the last ball of the 46th over.

Kelly, however, did get an opportunity to make amends for his wayward bowling against Canada on the previous day and went some way towards achieving that as he collected Holland?s first wicket in reply, that of Tom De Grooth, caught by Hemp for nine at mid-off with the total on 18.

But slowly and surely the game slipped away from Bermuda, Zuiderent (63) and ten Doeschate (65) methodically picking off the bad balls in an unhurried partnership of 96 which left the result in no doubt.

When ten Doeschate finally drove into the hands of Kelly off Durham, the game was as good as over.

And the big-hitting Maurits van Nierop (31 not out) ensured Bermuda were put out of their misery fairly quickly, clubbing two huge sixes, the second off Durham to complete the victory.

Bermuda, Holland and Canada all travel back to the High Performance Camp in Pretoria today with the fourth match of the Tri-Series between Bermuda and Canada scheduled for Benoni, just outside Johannesburg, tomorrow.