Rod Lyall 12/08/24
The battle for a spot in the top four tightened still further on Sunday, with just four points separating the top five teams and two games remaining.
Leaders Punjab-Ghausia missed an opportunity to go clear at the top when they collapsed against Hermes-DVS at the Loopuyt Oval, CP Klijnhans spinning them to a 50-run defeat with figures of six for 13.
Both sides wasted promising starts, Hermes, after being put in, reaching 198 for two thanks to Ash Ostling’s 79 and Daniel Doyle’s 41, but then adding only 55 more in the final twenty overs to finish on 243 for nine.
Sajjad Kamal was the most effective of Punjab’s bowlers with three for 32, while Khurram Shahzad was again economical with just 23 coming from his eight overs.
The Punjab reply began haltingly, Ralph Elenbaas removing both Shoaib Minhas (from the first ball he received) and Mohsin Riaz by the time 46 runs were on the board, but then Jonathan Vandiar and Saqib Zulfiqar added 107 for the third wicket, and Punjab seemed to be on course for a fairly routine victory.
But then Klijnhans took the ball, and with his second delivery he had a tired Vandiar caught by Sebastiaan Braat for 69.
Saqib followed off the first ball of his second, departing for 58, and with the last he had skipper Sikander Zulfiqar before he had scored.
When he added the scalp of Burhan Niaz he had four for 7, and with the steady Murid Ekrami chipping in with two wickets at the other end, Punjab had lost six for 15 in 55 deliveries; Shahzad led some stubborn resistance, but then Klijnhans returned to claim the last two, and Punjab were all out for 193.
HBS Craeyenhout missed an opportunity to go top when they were comprehensively beaten at home by VRA Amsterdam.
Without Vikram Singh, spinners Shariz Ahmad and Clayton Floyd and the injured Teja Nidamanuru, VRA were arguably even more hampered than their hosts, who had lost Wesley Barresi and Kyle Klein to international duties and Lehaan Botha to demands back in South Africa, but they never took their foot from the pedal once Johan Smal had won the toss and put HBS in.
Playing his first first-team match of the season, opener Manjinder Singh made an aggressive 32, and Matt de Villiers held the middle order together for a time with 61, but left-arm paceman Ben Fletcher took three for 19 and off-spinner Leon Turmaine three for 35, and HBS were all out for 143.
Shirase Rasool and Demari Prince then smacked 52 off the first five overs of VRA’s reply, and although Julian de Mey eventually trapped Prince in front for 29, Rasool continued to a run-a-ball 59, while Smal hammered a not-out 50 to ensure VRA’s victory in just 20.3 overs, doing considerable damage to the HBS net run rate in the process.
It was more understandable that Voorburg, without four Dutch internationals and the departed Gavin Kaplan, should struggle against a near full-strength HCC, but in fact it was the season’s most outstanding allround performance so far to earn the Lions the points.
Coming in at 105 for four as Voorburg fought back from a shaky start in which Tonny Staal had struck a 25-ball 49, Daniel Crowley compiled a career-best 67, made from 56 deliveries and including ten fours and two sixes, guiding his side almost single-handed to a defendable 195 all out.
Ex-international Philippe Boissevain was the pick of Voorburg’s bowlers with three for 28.
Crowley then proceeded to rip through the comparatively inexperienced Voorburg top order, removing Nehaan Gigani with his fourth delivery and then claiming three more victims within his first three overs to reduce the defending champions to 9 for four.
Then he bowled Boissevain and Adam Leonard bowled Michael Molenaar, and at 27 for six Voorburg were in danger of a truly cataclysmic collapse.
They were to a degree rescued by a dogged knock from stand-in captain Floris de Lange, who top-scored with 28, but two run-outs brought the end at 114, Crowley finishing with five for 38.
In Saturday’s matches in the Relegation Pool, victories for Sparta 1888 over Excelsior ’20 and for VOC Rotterdam against ACC ensured that the Amsterdam club would be playing in the Hoofdklasse next season.
Izhaan Sayed again top-scored for ACC with 48, stands of 72 with Ben van der Merwe (26) and 56 with Guy Sheena (28) getting his side to 139 for five, skipper Anis Raza’s 39 enabling them to reach 184 for nine; Aaditt Jain took three for 36 for VOC.
Sayed had Ryan Schierhout caught behind with his second delivery, but any thought of an ACC victory was snuffed out by an unbroken third-wicket stand of 172 between Taylor Bettelheim and Jock McKenzie.
Bettelheim hit his first Topklasse century, his 108 not out coming from 112 deliveries with ten fours and two sixes, while McKenzie finished on 60 as VOC won by eight wickets.
The encounter between Excelsior and Sparta at Thurlede was a classic relegation battle, Sparta overhauling their hosts’ 185 for nine in the penultimate over with just two wickets in hand.
Stan van Troost’s 49 enabled Excelsior to recover somewhat after they slumped to 75 for six, Cameron Fraser again doing much of the damage with four for 28, and Sam Ferguson then made a solid 68 to bring Sparta close to their target.
Victor Lubbers kept Excelsior in the fight with four for 31, but it was Umar Baker, batting at nine against his old club, whose unbeaten 41 ensured that Sparta squeezed home with nine deliveries to spare.
TKcricket 