Looking at Monday’s Liberation Day fixtures (for the uninitiated, Liberation Day is now a public holiday in the Netherlands once every five years) before Saturday’s second round is played makes prediction even more problematic than usual, especially since this time several clubs will be without their national team players. We knew from the outset that this year strength in depth would be a key factor in deciding the championship, and there will be a lot more evidence on that score by the time the dust settles on Monday evening. But we are where we are in several respects, so with all the usual caveats, here’s what we think.
RL: Whatever the results on Saturday, the clash between Kampong and Punjab-Ghausia at Maarschalkerweerd on Monday will be one of the key games of the season. Whether the Utrecht side will be able to maintain a challenge for the title in the absence of Edwards and O’Dowd is one of the big questions, and there could be no greater test of that issue than a game against the reigning champions, with or without their Zulfiqars. Here is a situation in which the acquisition of Lorenzo Ingram really comes into its own, but Lane Berry and Lachlan Bangs will also have a word or two to say in the matter, while Kampong also have plenty of home-grown talent, especially with the ball, Pierre Jacod having again proved his worth in the opening demolition of VOC. But Punjab’s all-round strength remains undoubted, and they will be out to demonstrate it to the full against the new kids on the block.
BdJ: Having strategically delayed my own contribution to this dialogue by a day, I’ve the benefit of hindsight looking back on the ambush sprung on Punjab in their own back yard by VRA yesterday, the defending champions proving bafflingly brittle despite the addition of Jonathan Vandiar. With Saqib Zulfiqar’s hamstring keeping him sidelined the batting depth isn’t quite what it might be, but one suspects Saturday’s performance was something of an aberration. Kampong, conversely, looked imperious with the bat against Excelsior, and indeed even without Edwards and O’Dowd one could argue that they remain a batting-heavy side. One would expect Punjab to revert to something closer to their altogether less embarrassing mean with the bat tomorrow of course, so all told a tough game to call, but you’d have to go with Kampong on form.
RL: VRA will travel to Schiedam without three of their regulars in skipper Teja Nidamanuru, opener Vikram Singh and spinner Shariz Ahmad, while hosts Hermes-DVS will have to manage without allrounder Aryan Dutt. But the Amsterdammers, whose Second XI is playing in the Hoofdklasse this season, have plenty of back-up, and with Johan Smal able to resume the captaincy they are probably as well fitted as anyone to cope with the depletion. If both sides have won on Saturday whoever takes the points here will retain an unbeaten record and have at least a share of the lead on the table, so there will be plenty on the line at the Loopuyt. Keen to build on their extremely promising return to the top flight last year, Hermes have a canny captain in Sebastiaan Braat, a competent, well-balanced attack, and a couple of explosive openers, but their main concern will be to ensure that their middle order comes to the party more consistently. Led by Ben Fletcher and Peter Ruffell, with Ashir Abid as first change, VRA’s attack is sharp enough to make that difficult, and Hermes will need to be at their best to take the points here.
BdJ: Coming off two wins, the most recent the closest thing to a hard-fought victory we’ve seen this season, Hermes may prove a sterner challenge than the cruising VRA have faced thus far. The Amsterdammers have the depth to shrug off the loss of three internationals in the bowling department at least, especially with Ben Fletcher expected to return to the fray, though without the trio lost to Oranje the batting does look rather dependent on Smal and the new overseas bats Cassidy and Gouge. How the three weather the trial by spin and pace-off seam from the likes of Kothari, Jabarkhail and Braat that awaits them at ‘t Loopuyt, together with the question of who if any amongst the VRA attack can contain or remove Daniel Doyle-Calle, will likely decide who takes the points from this one.
RL: Voorburg provide more players than any other to the Dutch squad, so they will really need to draw on their reserves when they make the short journey to De Diepput to take on HCC. Given, though, that those ‘reserves’ include former HCC seamer Patrick Charumbira and his fellow-Zimbabwean Carl Mumba, and that they will still have Mees van Vliet to take the new ball and Gavin Kaplan’s allround skills (as well as stand-in captaincy), they will make that journey in good heart. Untroubled by national team call-ups, the Lions will nevertheless have a great opportunity to show that they belong at the upper end of the table rather than the lower. HCC’s overseas Oliver White had a couple of games with Voorburg last season after Kaplan had departed, so like Charumbira he will be taking on former teammates, but the key to the home side’s chances of success will likely be how their home-grown batters cope against Voorburg’s well-balanced attack. They will certainly need to do a lot better than they managed last time they occupied the crease at De Diepput.
BdJ: While some teams prefer to rely on a pipe-line of youth players, others source reinforcements from overseas, and other still pull in talent from rival Dutch clubs, Voorburg persist with the sly tactic of just doing all of those things at once. The loss of Croes, Levitt, de Leede and Kingma consequently doesn’t hit quite as hard at VCC, who can call upon an unrivalled bench strength to compensate. HCC at de Diepput remains a tricky proposition however, and the Lions looked a massively improved outfit yesterday compared to their rather shambolic opening showing this season. The trusted trio of Staal, Overdijk and Gorlee will as ever be crucial to the hosts’ hopes, and there’s something to be said for a settled side on home turf, even when objectively outgunned.
RL: Having gone down fighting on day one, HBS and Sparta 1888 will both hope to show more of that resilience, with a better outcome, when they meet at Craeyenhout in another early-season showdown where getting away from the bottom three is the first priority. Although they will undoubtedly miss Kyle Klein from the attack, and possibly from the middle order, the Crows will otherwise be at full strength, and they have plenty of batting to give Sparta’s dogged attack a hard time. The Capelle side may tend to rely excessively on their overseas trio of Kyle Klesse, Lukas Boorer and Juandre Scheepers with the bat, but they do have a lower order which can chip in with valuable runs, and they may need them to do so against an HBS attack which has the likes of former skipper Ferdi Vink to call on in Klein’s absence. The home side, too, have a crop of promising youngsters coming through, as Elmar Boendermaker’s progress attests, so they have the luxury of choosing between the wiles of experience and the enthusiasm of youth.
BdJ: The Crows have racked up another fighting defeat since the above was written, while the Spartans’ efforts against HCC were rather less inspiring yesterday. That said, the HBS attack without Kyle Klein looks considerably less intimidating, while Sparta have been left entirely unscathed by the national selectors. Ahsan Malik’s return to regular competition has been a particular blessing, looking every bit as canny as back when he too was a regular in Orange. The Cappelle side have said they were sanguine about the possibility of relegation, but will doubtless be alert to the fact that a win over the winless Crows could put distance between them and the prospect.
RL: More than any other, reading this match depends greatly on what happens on Saturday: which of home side VOC and visitors Excelsior ‘20 has started to come back from their catastrophic start to the season? With Raynard van Tonder, Antum Naqvi and Jason Ralston, Excelsior have a trio of overseas who should be able to win them a fair number of crucial matches, and few will be crucial-er than this one as the table starts to take shape. But the two sides share the problem of under-performing home-grown players, and while in Aaditt Jain and Roman Harhangi the Bloodhounds have two of the most promising seamers in the competition, it’s in games like this that they will need them to step up and prove their mettle. The Bloodhounds will also be looking once more for big contributions from Scott Janett and Christiaan Oberholzer, their new overseas, who will likely be instrumental in the side’s campaign to stay up.
BdJ: While both sides put up a somewhat improved showing with the bat in the process of being thoroughly beaten yesterday, VOC almost getting to within 130 runs of Voorburg’s total was entirely down to a single partnership between new overseas Scott Janett and Denmark’s Monty Singh, whereas Excelsior can take heart from encouraging innings from both Kroesens and especially Stan van Troost. If the three maintain that momentum, new arrival Antum Naqvi can recapture some of his recent form, and/or Raynard van Tonder can play through the pain of the hand injury he picked up yesterday, Excelsior would have the makings of a formidable batting line up. While the Schiedammers bowling has rather lacked a cutting edge so far this season, given the Bloodhounds batting so far one might say it’s a question of an eminently resistible force meeting an easily moveable object…
RL’s picks: Punjab, VRA, Voorburg, HBS, Excelsior.
BdJ’s picks: Kampong, VRA, Voorburg, HBS, Excelsior.
TKcricket 