Rod Lyall 14/09/25
Dutch autumn weather did its best to spoil the party on Saturday, but at Schiedam’s Loopuyt Oval at least cricket had the last word, the finals of both the Women’s T20 and men’s Topklasse T20 Cups achieving a result.
Both matches were curtailed by the rain, the side which won the toss electing to field and thereby gaining the considerable advantage of chasing a severely reduced target.
In the women’s match Quick Haag got in their full 20 overs against HCC, reaching 143 for five thanks to a splendid 68-ball 86 from opener Annemijn Thomson, who was supported in a second-wicket stand of 80 by Luisa Ekelmans (25 at a run a ball).
Iris Zwilling was the pick of the HCC bowlers, her four overs conceding just 7 runs for the wicket of Thomson’s opening partner Alarda Mol.
Then the weather intervened, and HCC were set a reduced target of 36 from five overs, a task which they were untroubled in achieving for the loss of one wicket with three deliveries to spare, Frédérique Overdijk seeing them home with an unbeaten 21 from 16 balls.
HCC’s men found the show on the other foot soon afterwards, when VRA captain Teja Nidamanuru won the toss and elected to field.
Who the Lions would be facing had been in doubt for much of the week, after Voorburg, who had lost to VRA in a semi-final, challenged that result on the grounds that their opponents had played an ineligible player in Shirase Rasool.
Rasool, they claimed, had played an insufficient number of matches in the round robin phase, but in a last-minute decision the Appeals Committee ruled that he had indeed been qualified to play under the KNCB’s complex Playing Conditions.
Having been cleared to contest the final the Amsterdammers immediately seized the initiative, Nidamanuru himself taking a low return catch to remove Clayton Floyd with the first ball of the second over, and Ben Fletcher having Oliver White caught by Johan Smal off the first ball of the next.
When Boris Gorlee edged the first ball of the sixth,bowled by Peter Ruffell, through to keeper Jack Cassidy it was 17 for three, and although Shirsak Banerjee got off the mark with a boundary, HCC were struggling with 25 on the board when the players were forced from the field two balls into the seventh.
A long delay followed, and when Mark Wolfe and Banerjee resumed the innings had been reduced to just 11 overs a side.
Almost immediately Shariz Ahmad removed Banerjee and Hidde Overdijk with successive deliveries, but Wolfe (20) and Daniel Crowley (18 from 10 deliveriesI doubled the score before Nidamanuru accounted for both in the final over, and HCC closed on 65 for seven.
That was adjusted to 66 by DLS, and Rasool gave VRA’s reply a flying start, top-edging Crowley to third man for four before twice smacking him over long on for six.
Trying to make it three in a row he was caught by Hidde Overdijk on the boundary for a four-ball 16, and then Nidamanuru took up the challenge, carving White through backward point for four before twice lofting him over long on for two more.
He got under the next and was caught in the deep by Teun Leijer, but VRA had almost reached the halfway mark inside two overs.
By the time Clayton Floyd had Vikram Singh caught at cow only 24 more were required, and Sma’s 11-ball 19 took VRA to within two runs of their target, Shariz and Cassidy finishing it off two balls into the seventh over.
The weather had ensured that it was far from being a classic, but it gave VRA their fifth T20 Cup final victory.
There was a less satisfactory outcome at the Zomercomplex, where ACC had reached 17 for two in 4.1 overs against Kampong Utrecht before the players left the field, never to return.
There is no provision for a replay in the Hoofdklasse Cup final, so Kampong are champions by virtue of having topped the table after the round robin phase, and will now meet VOC Rotterdam, again at the Zomercomplex, on Sunday to decide which of the two plays in the Topklasse T20 Cup next season.
TKcricket 