Bertus de Jong 08/05/2024
With 15 games to be played over four days, the Ascension Day weekend looks set to be decisive for the Topklasse T20 season, at least in terms of who’s likely to feature in the play-offs. Two complete triple-headers and two teams trekking out East gives us eight Round 4 games on Thursday, plus an orphaned Round 1 catch-up match on Friday for nine games before Round 5 kicks off on Saturday.
VOC Rotterdam welcome current table-toppers VRA and third-placed Voorburg to Hazelaarweg for the first three-way, and will be hoping to make as good use of home advantage as their opponents have thus far. The Bloodhounds have only gotten two matches played so far, and lost one of those to HCC, so four points are basically a must for them on Thursday. Overseas bat Jock McKenzie and Ryan Schierhout have proved more than adequate replacements for the departed O’Dowd and Edwards, while Asief Hoseinbaks is having an exellent season with the ball. Nonetheless VRA’s hitting power will be cause for concern at Hazelaarweg, with Dutch internationals Vikram singh and Teja Nidamanuru both in the runs and (rumoured Dutch residancy aspirant) Elijah Eales has been a force down the order. VRA’s own bowling has struggled to stem the scoring this season though, and both the other sides at Hazelaarweg have the batting to take advantage. Voorburg’s top order hasn’t really fired in club cricket, though the club is the chief supplier of bats to the national side for good reason. Young Nehaan Gigani’s had a chance to steal the spotlight as his international team-mates have struggled, while Floris de Lange’s five-for last week suggests their slow-bowling worries may be overblown.
Meanwhile HCC host Punjab-Ghausia and Sparta 1888 in the day’s other full triple-header, in what’s most likely to be a decisive day’s play for the table. HCC and Sparta are both firmly mid-table on four points, while Punjab are two points behind with games in hand. HCC’s sixth-place position arguably flatters them, having struglled with both bat and ball this season. Not one HCC bat averages over 30 in their four matches, while young Teun Leijer’s outshone his more senior team-mates with the ball. The addition of Tim Pringle helps in both departments, but the Lions will look for greater contributions from Gorlee, Overdijk and Staal. Sparta meanwhile have had a profoundly up-and-down season, on the receiving end of two trouncings at the Amsterdamse Bos in Round 2 but bouncing back to best Excelsior fairly comfortably last weekend. Riley Mudford looks perhaps the most dangerous bat in the competiton, while Khalid Ahmadi has been in fine form with ball in hand, and so too has the veteran Ahsan Malik when he’s been available. There’s been little match-winning threat on show from the rest of the side yet though, and when things have gone badly for them they’ve gone very badly indeed.
Hermes DVS and HBS Craeyenhout make the trip to Deventer to take on last-placed Salland, though the two visiting sides won’t be playing each other. Salland’s season so far has seen them endure a series of drubbings, their net run rate of negative seven refelecting how they’ve been hopelessly outclassed. The absence of the German contingent owing to a national training camp robbed them of much of their side, but even at full strength they’ve looked far from competitive thus far. Hermes by contrast exploded out of the gate ton top-flight return, but stumbled last week when their top order twice misfired. Two round 3 defeats at the hands of Voorburg and HBS exposed a dependence on openers CP Klijnhans and Daniel Doyle Calle, though Salland hardly look in shape to take advantage of any vulnerability. HBS versus Salland is on paper the easiest match to call all season. Salland are still winless, HBS undefeated, and it would take a remarkable upset to change that tomorrow.
Excelsior have a bye for Round 4, but do have a catch-up Round 1 match against Punjab scheduled for Friday night at Thurlede. With just a single point from their double wash-out against VOC thus far the Schiedammers will be desperate to get a win on the board. They still have two games in hand over most of the field so their position is hardly irrecoverable, but another defeat would likely finish their play-off hopes.
Rod Lyall è in vacanza
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