Rod Lyall 03/05/26
Another commanding performance by Rotterdam on Saturday saw off the challenge of Hermes-DVS with surprising ease and carried them to the top of the table on net run rate, ahead of pursuers Kampong Utrecht and Voorburg.
The Rotterdammers fell just short of last week’s total of 338, but it took a sustained late effort from the Sky Blues attack to briefly pause their onslaught after Musa Ahmad and Muhammad Gondal had put on 186 for the second wicket in just under 30 overs.
Musa had seemed certain to follow up last week’s century with another, but on 98 he cut Sahil Kothari uppishly to point, where he was caught by Oliver Herrington.
Three overs later Gondal also missed out on a well-deserved hundred, beaten by a direct hit from Hikmatullah Jabarkhail as, on 96, he attempted to regain the strike.
Four more wickets now fell comparatively quickly, but Saqib Zulfiqar ensured that the runs kept coming, and as the innings neared its close he hammered a 41-ball 55 to see his side to an imposing 331 for eight.
Hermes had also posted 300 last week, but chasing such totals is another matter, and when Carl Mumba removed Daniel Doyle Calle and last week’s record-breaking centurion David Rushmere with consecutive deliveries, their reply could scarcely have got off to a worse start.
The innings never recovered, Olivier Elenbaas and Nick Statham top-scoring with 25 apiece, but with Mumba returning to clean up the lower order and finish with six for 47 and Sulaiman Tariq chipping in with two for 27, Hermes were all out for 118, giving Rotterdam a thumping 213-run victory.
Voorburg joined the 300-plus club, posting 306 for five against HBS at Westvliet, but here both partners in a 166-run third-wicket stand did reach three figures, 18-year-old Cedric de Lange doubling up on last week’s century with exactly 100, made from 114 deliveries with eight fours.
After opening the previous week he dropped down to three to make room for Peter Hatzoglou, who contributed a brisk 39, but it was skipper Noah Croes who shared the big partnership for the third wicket, and who then went on to cash in in the final overs, reaching his own century and finishing with an unbeaten 120, from 112 deliveries with 16 boundaries.
Again, the task proved well beyond the Crows’ batting line-up, and although Kent Goedeke made 48 and Navjit Singh 41, the new-ball pairing of Jaynul Islam and Mees van Vliet ensured that their stand of 47 was the best HBS could muster.
This time it was Islam who collected the five-wicket haul, finishing with five for 32, while Van Vliet collected three for 60 as HBS were dismissed for 175; Croes bagged four catches behind the stumps to go with his unbeaten hundred.
VOC soon had reason to regret skipper Tim de Kok’s decision to bat first at Maarschalkerweerd, as Kampong’s new-ball seamer Shashank Kumar ripped through their top order, reducing them to 42 for four in the space of 11 overs.
Jason van der Meulen started a partial recovery, sharing a stand of 67 for the fifth wicket with Ethan Price, and once he had gone for 54 Price continued in company with a dogged Ahsan Malik, the pair adding another 75.
But Pierre Jacod eventually removed Malik, and although Price made 81, once he was gone the innings folded quickly, and VOC were all out for 215, Kumar taking four for 24 in that devastating early spell.
Pierce Fletcher struck back when Kampong replied, sending both openers back to the dug-out by the time 32 runs were on the board, but Scott Edwards now took over, and although he lost Lorenzo Ingram at 64, he and Jacod added 137 for the fourth wicket to take the game away from a persistent VOC attack, who again fought hard despite being unable to achieve the breakthrough they needed.
It finally came with just 15 more required, Edwards caught by Price off Jelte Schoonheim for 88, but despite losing Lachlamn Bangs soon afterwards, stayed to the end, finishing with an unbeaten 75 as Kampong won by five wickets with more than ten overs to spare.
The least one-sided game – not that that is saying very much – was at De Diepput, where after a delayed start HCC again struggled to create momentum against VRA after winning the toss and electing to bat.
Sharad Hake, Viraj Thakur and Shariz Ahmad picked up a wicket apiece to reduce them to 51 for three, and the only time they looked like getting on top was when Tonny Staal and Teun Kloppenburg were batting together.
But Staal eventually hit a return catch to Darsh Abhinay and departed for 43, and it was eventually Vikram Singh who took charge with the ball, collecting the last five wickets in the space of 24 deliveries and finishing with five for 25, his best figures in the Topklasse.
Kloppenburg’s 71-ball 61 was by a distance the most assured innings for the Lions, but once he had gone Singh took over, and HCC were all out for 184.
Singh then capped a fine all-round performance by making a 67-ball 57, getting the reply off to a rollicking start by smacking Hidde Overdijk’s first ball for six and adding two more, whereafter Johan Smal saw his side home with a composed 77 not out, VRA winning by six wickets with 13 overs to spare.
TKcricket 