Rod Lyall 21/08/2022
Dosti Amsterdam’s 59-run victory over ACC at Het Loopveld on Saturday took them a further step towards avoiding automatic relegation, but they will still face a difficult expedition to Capelle a/d IJssel next Sunday in their quest for a place in the play-off against the champions of the Hoofdklasse.
Next week’s showdown at the Bermweg was set up by Sparta 1888’s 75-run win over a greatly-weakened VOC Rotterdam on Saturday, which brought the Capelle side level on points with Dosti, although they have played a game more and are therefore behind them on points average.
After winning just one league match in the previous two seasons and losing their first eleven games this year Dosti have now won three in a row, a last-ditch revival which leaves them two wins away from retaining their place in the Topklasse.
Their defeat of ACC owed much to a fourth-wicket stand of 142 between Vinoo Tewarie (64) and Amitoze Singh (82), which enabled them to recover from a precarious 46 for four and reach a competitive 236 for nine.
Mees van Vliet was again the pick of ACC’s bowlers, finishing with three for 45.
The home side began their chase promisingly, Thomas Hobson and Robin Smith putting on 74 for the first wicket, but once Smith, on 65, had been caught at short cover by Tewarie off the bowling of Kuldeep Diwan the middle order fell apart, only Anis Raza with 34 showing any real resistance.
Diwan took five for 34, his best return of the season, and ACC were all out for 177.
At Sportpark Bermweg VOC’s Max Hoornweg marked his return to his former club with a haul of four for 24, enabling his side to restrict Sparta to 156 for eight from their 50 overs.
They seemed to be heading for an even lower total when they collapsed to 93 for eight, but they were rescued by Ahsan Malik and Usman Saleem, not out on 42 and 36 respectively as they shared an unbroken ninth-wicket stand of 63.
Daan van Everdingen, playing first first top-flight match for ten years, gave VOC a solid start with 28, but otherwise only captain Tim de Kok with 21 delayed the Sparta victory for any length of time, Khalid Ahmadi taking four for 16, Joost Martijn Snoep three for 27 and Malik two for 23 as VOC were dismissed for just 83.
Kampong Utrecht’s attempt to avoid automatic relegation came to a disappointing end at Maarschalkerweerd, where they fell 22 runs short of their target as they chased Salland’s 194 for eight.
52 from Sahir Naqash, 31 from opener Venkat Ganesan and 34 from Elam Bharathi enabled Salland to reach their total, Tushar Sharma the most successful of Kampong’s bowlers with three for 32, but stand-in captain Reinder Lubbers, deputising for his brother Victor, removed both openers, and Kampong were in trouble at 36 for three.
Cole Briggs and Vikram Chaturvedi managed a partial revival, but once Akhil Gopinath trapped Briggs in front for 60 the innings again fell apart, and with Gopinath finishing with three for 28 and two wickets apiece for Lubbers, Ganesan and Bharathi, Kampong were all out for 173.
TKcricket 