Rod Lyall 25/08/25
After a busy weekend the T20 Cup table has a much more familiar look, with Hermes-DVS, HCC and VRA staking strong claims to semi-final spots and Excelsior ’20 joining VOC, HBS and Rood en Wit in a tightening battle to avoid relegation.
Hermes began their weekend with a routine win at Sportpark Bermweg over Sparta 1888, who after a promising start to their campaign are also drifting towards the lower reaches of the table, with Asad Zulfiqar’s 35, Olivier Elenbaas’s 32 and twenties from Daniel Doyle, Ralph Elenbaas and Aryan Dutt propelling them to 186 for seven.
Sparta had no answer to this, only a dogged 45 from opener Shaquille Martina, who batted throughout the innings before he was the last man out, enabling them to reach 109 as Sebastiaan Braat picked up four for 19.
Hermes then travelled back from Capelle a/d IJssel to Sportpark Harga, where they were comprehensively beaten by VRA Amsterdam.
With Shariz Ahmad claiming four for 16 they could only muster 123 before they were all out, 52 of those runs coming from Olivier Elenbaas, and VRA required only 16 and a half overs to complete a nine-wicket victory, Vikram Singh making a 45-ball 65 before he seemed somewhat unfortunate to be given leg-before to Sahil Kothari.
He and Teja Nidamanuru had put on 106 for the first wicket, and Nidamanuru then finished the job, ending unbeaten on 49.
Sunday saw Hermes again in action, this time at Thurlede, where they proved too strong for Schiedam neighbours Excelsior ‘20.
Braat was again amongst the wickets with four for 15 as Excelsior battled their way to 109 for nine, Sam Rahaley top-scoring with 34, and this time it was Ash Ostling who led them to an eight-wicket victory, making a 37-ball 44 not out and sharing an opening stand of 55 with Doyle (29).
Double victories in Sunday took HCC into second spot on the table, with a narrow NRR advantage over Punjab-Ghausia, who enjoyed a weekend off.
Despite losing Josh Brown and Boris Gorlee to the Jain brothers inside the first four overs, the Lions posted the weekend’s highest total with 190 for seven against VOC Rotterdam at De Diepput, thanks to a 43-ball 64 from Oliver White and 56 from 33 deliveries from Clayton Floyd.
Brown then demolished VOC almost single-handed, returning the astonishing figures of 4 – 1 – 7 – 6, including a hat-trick, as the Bloodhounds again collapsed in dramatic fashion, only Ramdas Upadhyaya reaching double figures as they were all out for 48; White, who had started the rout, finished with three for 11.
HCC then made it two out of two with a five-wicket win against Voorburg, who are still suffering from the loss of Michael Levitt and Ryan Klein after last week’s unfortunate collision.
Henry Melville’s 28-ball 37 was the highlight of Voorburg’s 142 for nine, Jan-Wieger Overdijk the pick of the bowlers with two for 16, but with White contributing 44 and Gorlee an unbeaten 47 HCC reached their target with five deliveries to spare.
It was a triumphant weekend for VRA’s batters, who lost only four wickets as they garnered as many points from their two games and moved into a menacing fifth place on the table.
Having beaten Hermes on Saturday, the Amsterdammers completed their weekend in Schiedam with a seven-wicket victory over Excelsior on Sunday.
Opener Raynard van Tonder scored almost half Excelsior’s total of 116 for eight, making a 45-ball 57 before he was fourth out at 102, and VRA reached that target with almost five overs to spare, Nidamanuru leading the way with 33 from 22 deliveries and Shariz Ahmad and Viraj Thakur completing the task.
The most miserable weekend was suffered by HBS Craeyenhout, who lost at home to VOC on Saturday and then lost again, this time to Rood en Wit at Sportpark Eindenhout on Sunday.
It took 32 from Navjit Singh and 32 not out from Benno Boddendijk, who shared an unbroken eighth-wicket stand of 49 with Julian de Mey, to enable the Crows to reach 150 for seven, and when the visitors were on 18 for two it looked as if that might be enough.
But skipper Tim de Kok weighed in with 41, and then Jason van der Meulen hammered a 46-ball 88 not out, including seven fours and six sixes, to see VOC to a six-wicket victory with just one ball to spare.
Rood en Wit had so far gone winless, but they were given a great start on Sunday by an opening stand of 81 between Alexander de Graaff (48) and Ben Thornton (34), and although Boddendijk bowled his side back into the game with three for 10 from his four overs, 37 from skipper Jordan Woolf enabled the Haarlemmers to reach 148 for seven, their best total of the campaign.
Paul van Meekeren had Reece Mason caught behind off the first ball of the HBS reply, and when Ismatullah Nasery added Tayo Walbrugh to his impressive list of scalps the Crows were in evident trouble.
They suffered a further blow when Azzam Khan was forced to retire, and although Navjit Singh (56 from 45 with five sixes) and Martijn Scholte were able to achieve a partial recovery, Rood en Wit kept the upper hand, Arnav Mishra taking two for 15 from his four overs and Nasery finishing with three for 17 as HBS closed on 131 for eight.
The Crows have yet to face VRA, HCC and Voorburg, and there will be some concern at Craeyenhout with two and possibly three sides heading for the Hoofdklasse T20 competition next season; Kampong Utrecht are continuing to storm through this year’s Hoofdklasse T20 Cup, and would make formidable opponents for whoever finishes eighth in the Topklasse version.
TKcricket 