Rod Lyall 08/09/24
VRA Amsterdam overpowered defending champions Voorburg in a rain-shortened preliminary final in the Amsterdamse Bos on Saturday, setting up a grand final against Punjab-Ghausia in Rotterdam next week.
Leakage through the covers following overnight rain had left the pitch so wet that a start could not be made until 3 o’clock, cutting the match to 33 per overs a side.
Put in to bat, Noah Croes’s team never really got out of first gear on a pitch which favoured the bowlers, the new-ball pairing of Ben Fletcher and Elijah Eales picking up three wickets in the first nine overs for just 25 runs.
Croes himself and Ryan Klein managed to add 21 for the fourth wicket, but it took them more than seven overs, and when Shariz Ahmad removed them both in successive overs, adding the wicket of Tom de Leede into the bargain, Voorburg were in serious trouble.
Eales returned to dismiss Michael Molenaar, and although Laurens Boissevain and Mees van Vliet stayed together long enough to contribute 22 for the eighth wicket, the innings closed on 106 for nine, Shariz finishing with four for 17.
Voorburg may have felt that they had the ghost of a chance when they had both openers out with just 24 on the board, but this brought together Vikram Singh and Johan Smal, and they proceeded to settle the issue, cautiously at first but then with increasing confidence.
As the target grew nearer Singh went onto the attack, finishing the game with two sixes to reach 58 not out, while Smal made an unbeaten 28.
In the Hoofdklasse, Kampong Utrecht’s victory over Salland turned out to be if anything even more emphatic, though not before they had slumped from a solid 116 for two to 178 all out, at one stage losing five wickets for 16 runs.
Max O’Dowd’s 34, Ratha Alphonse’s 24 and Damien van den Berg’s 44 had given them a great start, but spinners Akhil Gopinath, Elam Bharathi and Acelan Pruss got them in a tangle, Gopinath again the most successful with four for 37, and it took an enterprising little ninth-wicket stand between Tushar Sharma and Kertan Nana to get them to a relatively decent total.
Salland started their reply confidently enough, but once Pierra Jacod had removed Venkat Ganesan it all fell apart, as the Overijssel side collapsed from 28 for one to 37 for six in the space of 23 deliveries.
There was no way back from there, and although Gopinath and Sahir Malikzai staged a minor recovery as well, putting on 23 for the ninth wicket, the cause was lost, and the innings ended on 94.
Shashank Kumar did much of the damage, claiming four for 34 to bring his tally for the season to 40 (second only to Gopinath’s 44), while skipper Alex Roy took two for 8 in six extremely economical overs as Kampong turned the screw.
Kampong will now take on Quick Haag at Nieuw Hanenburg next Saturday to determine which side plays in the Topklasse next season.
A piece of history will be made that day when the same two clubs are involved in the grand finals of the Topklasse and the Eerste Klasse, Punjab-Ghausia 2 having beaten HCC 2 by 37 runs on Saturday to set up a meeting with VRA 2 in what is in effect the third division.
TKcricket 