Arlene Kelly bowled Ireland to the brink of a clean sweep of the European T20 World Cup qualifiers in Rotterdam as her 5-14 set up an untroubled seven-wicket victory over the Netherlands.

A fifth straight win confirmed the Girls in Green as champions and a sixth today against Italy will deliver skipper Gaby Lewis’s pre-tournament goal of not only reaching the final round of qualifiers in Nepal in January but also winning every game.

The Dutch were the only side of the other three likely to stretch Ireland’s professionals but after a promising start their innings subsided from 81-3 to 110 all out.

Kelly again showed that her indifferent series against Pakistan was only a blip, and on a slow pitch with little bounce that was very much to her liking, the 31-year-old took the last four wickets to fall in the space of 10 balls.

“We all made the most of the surface, kept it simple for as long as possible, and it was great to come out on top,” Kelly said.

“We took it over by over and didn’t know what to expect from the pitch. It was a case of setting fields, bowling to them and then the batters showed a lot of composure.”

The experienced duo of Lewis and her vice-captain Orla Prendergast broke the back of the chase with a second-wicket partnership of 89 but both fell in sight of the winning line.

Prendergast nicked off for 49 from 44 balls while Lewis, whose recent form has lifted her to a career-high of 625 points in the world rankings and consolidated her 15th place, was well caught in the covers for 56, 

If the skipper had found a gap it would have brought both her eighth four and also the winning runs, instead it was left to Amy Hunter and Laura Delany to scramble a single from the first ball of the final over to complete the victory.