Rod Lyall 10/05/26
The Hazalaarweg was the scene of the first real upset of the season on Saturday, when home side VOC produced a stunning five-wicket victory over championship contenders Voorburg.
It wasn’t so much the fact that the Bloodhounds’ attack, which had battled hard during the side’s defeats at the hands of Hermes-DVS and Kampong, was able to dismiss Voorburg for 160, as the way in which their opponents, fielding five Dutch internationals and young double-centurion Cedric de Lange, allowed themselves to subside so completely after reaching 141 for three.
The damage was mostly done by the spinners, Asief Hoseinbaks picking up four for 42 and Ethan Price two for 42, although the early wickets were claimed by the seamers, Roman Harhangi, Jason van der Meulen, and debutant Ludwig Spies.
Michael Levitt had given Voorburg a promising start with 43, and then Bas de Leede, back at his old club and sufficiently recovered from injury to make his first appearance though not yet able to bowl, top-scored with 49.
Once he had gone, however, the first of Hoseinbaks’ victims, the remaining six wickets fell for the addition of just 19 runs.
Bart Kooistra, promoted to open the VOC reply, gave his side a great start with 54 at almost a run a ball, hitting five fours and two sixes, and although Floris de Lange gave Voorburg some hope by removing Caleb Montague and Harhangi, Van der Meulen saw VOC home, finishing with an unbeaten 36.
On the other side of Rotterdam, Sikander Zulfiqar’s eponymous side had little difficulty in seeing off the challenge of defending champions Kampong Utrecht: not only did they post a 300-plus total for the third time in as many games, but they went past 350, finishing on 356 for eight.
Opener Shoaib Minhas led the way with 141, made from 126 deliveries with 17 fours and three sixes, and shared a third-wicket stand of 99 with Saqib Zulfiqar (41).
After Saqib had gone his triplet brother Sikander took over, and he and Minhas added 119 for the fourth wicket from 74 deliveries.
Sikander continued almost to the end, hitting seven fours and five sixes in his 56-ball 86, as Rotterdam reached the highest total conceded by Kampong in their top-flight history.
That seemed likely to be well beyond Kampong’s batting resources, and although Damien van den Berg and Max O’Dowd began the reply at a lively tempo, when Lorenzo Ingram came to the crease at 88 for four the match was effectively over.
Ingram, however, fought a lone rearguard battle, making a 72-ball 90, and when his was the last wicket to fall Kampong had reached 220, still 136 runs short.
Saqib Zulfiqar was the pick of Rotterdam’s bowlers with four for 46.
As Kampong and Voorburg faltered VRA took full advantage, beating Hermes-DVS by six wickets and moving into second place on net run rate.
Ash Ostling (60) and Daniel Doyle-Calle (64) gave Hermes a solid start with an opening stand of 118, but it took them nearly 30 overs to do it, thanks to some fine seam bowling from Sharad Hake, Vikram Singh and Viraj Thakur, and once they had gone, both dismissed by Shariz Ahmad, the innings fell apart, a further six wickets falling for 41 runs in the space of eight and a half overs, three of them to run-outs.
It took a defiant knock from Hermes skipper Sebastiaan Braat, who made 44 from 34 deliveries, assisted by Sahil Kothari and Oliver Herrington to add 58 for the last two wickets, to get his side up to 238; Shariz finished with three for 54, while Singh returned to pick up those last two wickets and end with two for 22.
Singh then led the way with the bat, making a valuable 46 before falling to Kothari, but it was Sam Cassidy who guided VRA to victory, making 91 and adding 97 with Shariz before he was bowled by Braat.
By that time, though, only 20 more were needed, and Shariz and Thakur saw their side home with seven deliveries to spare, Shariz finishing on 47 not out.
It took HCC a couple of balls more to complete their four-wicket win against HBS at Craeyenhout after the Crows had reached a reasonably challenging 267 for five.
Architect of HCC’s victory was Zac Worden, who played himself back into form with an unbeaten 115, made from 149 deliveries with fivee fours and four sixes.
Together with opener Tonny Staal, Worden put on 131 for the second wicket, and after Staal was caught behind off Kent Goedeke for 68, he added another 79 for the fourth with Teun Kloppenburg (43).
There was a mild flutter in the middle order when three wickets fell for just eight runs, but Worden was not to be denied, and he and Clayton Floyd made sure of the two points.
Earlier, HBS had recovered from a slightly shaky start to reach their 267, keeper Lucas del Bianco making a fine 84 not out after Lehan Botha had contributed 40 and Goedeke 42.
Del Bianco was supported very effectively in the closing overs by Kyle Klein, whose unbeaten 47 took just 25 deliveries and included two fours and four sixes, but HBS undoubtedly suffered from the fact that Klein, like Bas de Leede, has not recovered sufficiently from injury to be able to bowl.
HCC, too, have injury worries: Hidde Overdijk injured his hand catching Goedeke in the HBS innings, was unable to bowl his final three overs, and was unable to bat.
Teams will have just five days to recover before Thursday’s Ascension Day round of matches.
TKcricket 