Bertus de Jong 02/05/2024
With the welcome arrival of Spring sunshine we’ve a bumper weekend of Topklasse T20 to look forward to assuming the warm weather holds, with two one catch-up matches from round one scheduled in addition to the eight regular round three games on Saturday.
VOC Rotterdam will travel to Thurlede on Friday evening to take on Punjab-Ghausia, and then again (oh no they won’t it’s been postponed again -BdJ) on Sunday to face Excelsior ‘20 in addition to their single round 3 home match against HCC on Saturday. The Rotterdammers look to be shaping up decently enough, with Ryan Schierhout the stand-out thus far of the three overseas brought in to replace Edwards and O’Dowd, stiking 85 off 40 in their win over Salland last week. Asief Hoseinbak’s six wicket haul in that match grabbed the headlines for the round, but even a convincing 167-run win over the hapless Salland tells us little of course. Their prospects in their one regular round 3 game are complicated by the the presence of a number of Netherlands World Cup hopefuls in the Netherlands for the Pro-Series, meaning HCC may be able to call on the services of left-arm spin pair Tim Pringle and Daniel Doram for the game. If either or both play it could add some much needed control to the Lions’ attack, which has struggled both to contain and penetrate – young Teun Leijer the notable exception in that regard.
Punjab have a home trilateral on Saturday in addition to their friday night catch-up with VOC, welcoming VRA and Salland to the Zomercomplex. Punjab’s one match so far saw them take down the more-fancied Voorburg in emphatic fashion, Muhammad Shafiq the star with the ball and Musa Ahmad leading the with a blistering 92 off 41. Ahmad’s mercurial form is a bit of a worry however, having struggled in the pro-series so far. In the absence of Jonathan Vandiar which Musa turns up may prove decisive, with the rest of the batting still comparatively untested this season. Salland have thus far shown little indication that they have the firepower with bat or ball to challenge the rest of the field, though Pruss and Malikzai have looked handy additions there’s Sallanders have generally looked out of their depth in the top flight this season. VRA meanwhile bounced back from their opening defeat to HBS, taking full advantage of the small dimensions of their second ground to rack up wins over Sparta and a high-flying Hermes. The big question at the start of the season was how well the overhauled VRA side would gel, and indeed be able to transcend the off-field drama that seems to be engulfing the club. Based on last week’s showing, the side seems largely unphased. Vikram Singh’s form with bat and ball looks the Amsterdammers’ greatest strength at the minute, along with Elijah Eale’s hitting down the order, though most of the squad are looking an decent enough nick.
At the top end of the table unbeaten HBS Craeyenhout and early frontrunners Hermes DVS head to Wesvliet to take on Voorburg CC, who host the second of the weekend’s triple-headers. The hosts are right up in the mix at the top end too on two wins from three despite not looking at their best this season. Michael Levitt has yet to replicate his pre-season form in club cricket, while pace spearhead Vivian Kingma has been sidelined as a preacution as he nurses a side niggle. While Logan van Beek is in town it’s not thought likely that he’ll play, leaving the bowling looking a little threadbare. They’ll have a job containing Hermes, who have been racking up 200+ totals from the off thanks in large part to CP Klijnhans and Daniel Doyle-Calle, the latter currently leading the run-scoring in the competition with 223 runs at a strike rate over 200. With Klijnhans and skipper Sebastiaan Braat at 3 and 4 in the aggregates, the newly-promoted Schiedammers have had the most effective batting unit in the competition so far. The HBS top order has the pedigree to match them in principle, though it’s been Kyle Klein down the order and with ball in hand that’s been the stand-out performer for the Crows this season, the younger Klein also looking in excellent rhythm in the Pro-Series.
Finally, along with their catch-up fixture against VOC on Sunday, Excelsior ‘20 have a single round 3 match at home to Sparta 1888 the day before, with both sides looking to turn around a tough start to the season. Excelsior have only gotten on the park once thus far in an abbreviated encounter away at HCC that saw them slump to DLS defeat. Newcomer Jason Ralton had a particularly tough introduction to Dutch cricket as his pace was clubbed for 62 runs in 4 overs, and indeed only the veteran left arm spinner Lorenzo Ingram and ex-Salland skipper Victor Lubbers can be said to have had a good day with the ball. While Sparta had a very rough day with the ball on the VRA second ground last Saturday, there’s plenty of firepower in their batting, not least new keeper-bat Riley Mudford. Belgian seamer Khalid Ahmadi has also had a fine season with the ball so far, but Sparta felt the absence of wiley ex-Dutch international Ahsan Malik last round, and whether he’ll be available for a one-off game at Thurlede on Saturday is one of the big questions hanging over the round.
TKcricket 