Bertus de Jong & Rod Lyall 09/05/25
Just two weeks in and yet it already feels like the Dutch cricket season is in full swing, the international summer underway at VRA and the Topklasse entering round four, the table taking on a not entirely unexpected shape despite a few early surprises.
BdJ: At the top end of the table the two unbeaten sides, Hermes DVS and Kampong are set for a showdown at the Loopuyt Oval, with the clear pole position at stake. Thus far Hermes have been finding ways to win off the back of scores around the 200-mark, but that’s unlikely to be enough against a Kampong side that’s racked up two 300+ scores and a chase of 92 in ten overs already. Even with Edwards and O’Dowd still on international duty, Kampong’s new overseas trio of Lane Berry, Lachlan Bangs and Lorenzo Ingram have been delivering runs in abundance for their new side, while Daniel Doyle-Calle is the only Hermes bat to have passed 100 runs already, despite only playing two games. He’ll be hoping for a little more support from the rest of the line-up, and despite three impressive showings from the Hermes attack you’d have to say they start as underdogs at home.
RL: Hermes’ bowlers have done the job for them so far, but this will undoubtedly be the stiffest test they have faced. With nine wickets at an average of 8.00, new boy Hikmatullah Jabarkhail has been their trump card so far, and even without the injured Olivier Elenbaas the pace attack has been consistently effective as well. But whether they have the collective fire-power to contain Kampong’s batting is doubtful, although they will establish themselves as serious title contenders if they succeed. On the other side of the equation, Pierre Jacod shares the top of the wicket-taking table with Jabarkhail, and the achievements of the batters has perhaps obscured just how well the Kampong bowlers have been doing. The newly-promoted side doesn’t have an obvious weakness, even when it’s two internationals short, and it does seem likely that they will be on their own at the top of the tree by Saturday evening.
BdJ: Third-placed VRA, currently hosting the ongoing CWC League 2 ODI series at Amstelveen, are consequently on the road again come Saturday facing a tricky trip to Bermweg to take on the Sparta 1888, the latter still looking for their first win but having shown some fight in at least two of their three defeats. The Spartans managed to find early wickets against both Voorburg and HBS, even if the sub-250 totals they were defending proved inadequate in the end. VRA’s batting looks somewhat brittle in the absence of internationals Singh, Nidamanuru and Ahmad, who will all be on duty with the Dutch on Saturday, collapsing to 116 all out in pursuit of a similar sort of total against Hermes on Monday. They’ll look to deputy skipper Johan Smal to rally the somewhat ad-hoc squad assembled in the internationals’ absence, and to anchor a batting line-up that does not lack for depth on paper, but failed to deliver on Monday.
RL: We’re at the point already where the top of the mid-table threatens to detach itself from the bottom, and all the remaining games on Saturday pit teams from third to sixth against those whose main priority is to steer well clear of the perilous eighth place and the automatic relegation spots below it. Conversely, dropping points at this stage would put a big dent in their opponents’ goal of keeping pace with the leaders. So there will be a great deal to play for at the Bermweg, and Joost-Martijn Snoep will be hoping that he and his new-ball partner Ahsan Malik can put VRA’s top order under pressure. He will also, no doubt, be looking to Lukas Boorer and Kyle Klesse to deliver with the bat, but the visitors’ seam unit of Ben Fletcher, Peter Ruffell and Ashir Abid is one part of their set-up which is not affected by the national team’s commitments, and it, along with the batting of Smal, could be the key to the side’s hopes of staying in the hunt for the title they just missed out on last year.
BdJ: In fourth place, the much-fancied Voorburg welcome the less heralded Excelsior ‘20 to Westvliet, and while even just a week ago it would hard to imagine dubbing this a tough game to call, the form of Excelsior’s batting line-up combined with HCC dismantling the Voorburg attack on Monday has put a rather different shine on things. With young Stan van Troost having amassed 200 runs in his last 2 innings and new overseas Raynard van Tonder also averaging over 50, the Schiedammers’ batting suddenly looks like a strength rather than a liability. Last season’s lead wicket-taking Jason Ralston hasn’t quite found his rhythm yet, but if he and newcomer Antum Naqvi hit their stride one might imagine Excelsior challenging the top of the table. VCC also have two bats in the current top five though, with Gavin Kaplan continuing where he left off last season and young Cedric de Lange also stiking his maiden Topklasse ton last week. It was in the bowling department where Voorburg looked to be most lacking, missing their spearhead in Viv Kingma owing to Dutch duties. They will look to Mees van Vliet and Tom de Leede to shoulder more responsibility, and of course that the wrist spin of Hatzoglou and de Lange finds more purchase back on home turf.
RL: Hatzoglou going wicketless last seek after he had mesmerised VOC the week before was possibly a decisive factor in HCC’s victory, and Kaplan will be hoping that he can tame an Excelsior batting line-up which, as m’colleague observes, has the potential to steer the side well away from the danger area, and conceivably into a place among the leaders. Van Tonder’s near-century last Saturday was a courageous effort, and with allrounder Naqvi yet to show what he can do with the bat, the Schiedammers have the equipment to make opposing bowlers suffer. Voorburg, of course, have plenty of batting of their own, even without Michael Levitt, Bas de Leede and Noah Croes, and with Carl Mumba slotting into the middle order alongside Henry Melville they will represent a considerable threat to an Excelsior attack which is not yet firing on all cylinders.
BdJ: Meanwhile De Diepput will be gearing up for the Hague derby as HCC take on old rivals HBS Craeyenhout. Having just flogged VCC for 328 runs with time to spare on the same ground last week, the HCC bats will already be casting a predatory eye over a Kyle Klein-less HBS attack. HCC skipper Boris Gorlee currently leads the season run aggregates, but after a shambolic season opener practically the whole top order got runs under their belt last weekend. HBS meanwhile have needed former skipper Wes Barresi to try to hold the batting together, with mixed results. He dragged them to their first win of the season over Sparta last week, but the Crows will want more from the top of the order on Saturday
RL: Untroubled by the Dutch selectors and clearly starting to bring it all together with Gorlee leading from the front, HCC showed great resilience in chasing down a 300-plus target last Saturday, and they will be supremely confident against an HBS side whose season so far has gone in fits and starts. Talismanic captain Tayo Walbrugh has got starts without yet playing a really decisive innings, while with two runs from three knocks Lehan Botha has had a nightmare start to his campaign. Walbrugh’s decision to rely so heavily on spin paid off against Sparta, and it will be interesting to see whether he adopts the same policy, especially the tactic of opening with Barresi as well as Jayden Rossouw, against the Lions’ much more menacing line-up on a ground which offers plenty of rewards for hard hitters.
BdJ: Finally 2024 champions Punjab-Ghausia will be looking to get their title defence back on track when they welcome the winless, hapless VOC Rotterdam to the Zomercomplex, and could hardly ask for a less taxing assignment. While Punjab suffered two defeats in three days, the batting collapsing against VRA and then the bowling dismantled by Kampong, their opponents have not looked close to getting a win all season. While the VOC batting efforts have improved somewhat from the opening 86 all out, Danish international Monty Singh the stand-out, the Bloodhounds’ bowling attack has now twice given up 320+ scores, collectively averaging 57 with the ball and giving up some 6.7 runs per over. While neither side has had the start to the season that they’d have hoped for, Punjab do look the likelier of the two to turn things around.
RL: The statistics for VOC do indeed look bleak, but they are a fair reflection of their performances on the park so far. Punjab have the great advantage of being a settled team with an outstanding record, while the Bloodhounds have yet to cohere around their three new overseas, of whom the confusingly-named Singh a.k.a. TS Bharaj has been the most convincing; if VOC are to get away from the bottom of the table they will need Scott Janett and Christiaan Oberholzer to play much more significant roles than they have been able to do in the first three games. Their opponents have potential match-winners with both bat and ball, Mohsin Riaz, Saqib and Sikander Zulfiqar, Musa Ahmad and Shoaib Minhas all proven forces, with the evergreen Suleiman Tariq always guaranteed to wheel away to great effect in the opening powerplay. It would take a dramatic reversal of form here for VOC to leave the Zomercomplex with the points.
BdJ’s picks: Kampong, VRA, Voorburg, HCC, Punjab
RL’s picks: Kampong, VRA, Voorburg, HCC, Punjab.
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