Rod Lyall 23/06/24
For the first time in this season’s 50-over Topklasse competition the weather relented sufficiently for a full round of fixtures to be played, complete and uninterrupted, added interest coming from the return of the Dutch international side from the Caribbean.
VRA Amsterdam took full advantage of the fact, retaining their unbeaten record by bowling HCC out for 72 at De Diepput to win by 134 runs and move back to the top of the table.
The home side, also previously unbeaten, had done well to restrict the Amsterdammers to 206 all out, 92 from Johan Smal, who shared a third-wicket stand of 107 with skipper Teja Nidamanuru (39), instrumental in VRA’s achieving that total.
Conor McInerney removed both batters, going on to take four for 24, while Andrew Leonard returned to clean up the tail and finish with three for 29.
But when HCC replied Ben Fletcher (three for 12 in seven overs) and Elijah Eales combined to rip the top off the batting, and at 43 for six the Lions were effectively out of the game.
Shariz Ahmad now took over, taking four for 24 as the slide continued, and no-one was able to make more than Teun Kloppenburg’s 13 in HCC’s disappointing total.
If VRA’s demolition of HCC was a team effort, at Thurlede it was Excelsior’s Australian paceman Jason Ralston who was almost single-handedly responsible for his side’s even more dramatic destruction of the HBS battiing.
His figures of seven for 11 were the best ever in the club’s limited-overs top-flight history, beating Jorg Henneke’s seven for 25 against Kampong Utrecht in 1997, and they saw the Crows slump to 66 all out as they chased Excelsior’s fairly modest 163.
Kyle Klein had done much of the damage after Wesley Barresi put Excelsior in, taking four for 36, but Lorenzo Ingram stood firm, holding the tail together and making 62 before he was the last man dismissed.
Excelsior could also thank Niels Etman, who made 32 in an eighth-wicket partnership of 46 with Ingram before he was run out by Klein.
Lehan Botha and Reece Mason got the HBS total to 21 before Ralston struck, but then six wickets fell in 35 deliveries for the addition of just six runs, and although Barresi and Julian de Mey delayed the procession for a time until Jens Blankestijn removed De Mey, Ralston then returned to have Barresi caught behind for 21, the last four wickets falling for one additional run.
There was drama of a different sort elsewhere, not least at Westvliet, where defending champions Voorburg staged a strong fightback before losing to Punjab-Ghausia by six runs.
The Rotterdam side had set a fairly stiff target, their 248 for seven dominated by an unbeaten 97 from returning international Saqib Zulfiqar, and they appeared to have occupied the box seat when they had their hosts on 43 for four, with Michael Levitt, Gavin Kaplan and Noah Croes all back in the team tent.
Ahmad Shafiq had done much of that early damage, claiming three of the wickets at a cost of 10 runs, but then Ryan Klein, unable to bowl but undoubtedly fit enough to bat, and Michael Molenaar turned the game around with a fifth-wicket stand of 154.
This was another club record for the top flight, following Kaplan and Croes’s 202 for the third wicket three weeks ago, and it took Voorburg to within 52 runs of their target before Sajjad Kamal induced a false shot by Molenaar, who was well caught by Saqib at straightish deep mid-on.
Molenaar had made a 76-ball 72, but Klein was still there, and it was clear that much now depended on how effectively he was able to manage the lower order.
Together with Laurens Boissevain, Stijn de Leede and Floris de Lange he added another 32, but with 20 needed he pulled Kamal to Mohsin Riaz at backward square and departed for 92, made from 75 deliveries with six fours and three sixes.
De Lange and Viv Kingma reduced the deficit to single figures, but then Sikander Zulfiqar returned, producing a captain’s spell to have both De Lange and last man Mees de Vliet caught behind by Fawad Shinwari, and Punjab had squeezed home.
The drama was equally tense at the Hazelaarweg, where VOC Rotterdam, having conceded the largest total of the day when Hermes-DVS posted 261 for seven, won by one wicket with two deliveries to spare.
The VOC attack was depleted by the loss of Jock McKenzie who, in his third over of the day, deflected a powerful straight drive from Daniel Doyle into the stumps to run out Ashley Ostling, but in the process injured his right hand so severely that he was forced to leave the field.
Doyle went on to make 40, and with 50 from Aryan Dutt and 77 from Sebastiaan Braat Hermes had good reason to be happy with their batting effort.
Ralph Elenbaas then had Francois Fourie caught behind before he had scored, but Ryan Schierhout (74) and Taylor Bettelheim (69) added 125 for the second wicket, putting their side in a strong position until Braat returned to remove Bettelheim and run out Schierhout.
Tim de Kok and Jelte Schoonheim steadied the VOC ship, but Niels Woermeijer and Braat claimed their wickets, and effective resistance from the lower order again kept the Bloodhounds in touch with the required rate.
So effectively did they do so, indeed, that Roman Harhangi and Asief Hoseinbaks needed only ten off Woermeijer’s final over.
Harhangi was trapped in front by the first ball, and there was uncertainty on the field as to whether the injured McKenzie would come out to bat as last man.
He duly appeared, and proceeded to hit a four and a huge straight six to give his side the victory which had eluded them against Excelsior a week ago.
In the crucial relegation battle at the Bermweg Sparta 1888 reduced ACC to 24 for five before Guy Sheena’s 61, supported by lesser contributions from Anis Raza and Izhaan Sayed, enabled the visitors to muster 148, Sparta skipper Martijn Snoep taking three for 15 from ten overs with no fewer than six maidens.
Sam Ferguson led the way for Sparta with 59, but it was Shaquille Martina, in his first substantial innings for his new club, who saw the home side through to victory with an unbeaten 54, adding 55 with Cameron Fraser in an unbroken fourth-wicket partnership with gave Sparta their seven-wicket win.
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