Rod Lyall 26/05/26
The title race tightened appreciably on the Pentecost holiday on Monday, as the leadership again changed hands and HCC reinforced their claims with a decisive victory over early leaders Rotterdam.
At Maarschalkerweerd in Utrecht, Voorburg proved too strong for home side Kampong, dismissing them for 190 and going on to win by six wickets.
After winning the toss and electing to bat Kampong were never really in charge, off-spinner Cedric de Lange reducing them to 117 for six with a career-best spell of four for 18 in ten overs.
Robert van der Harten, Tushar Sharma and Alex Roy were able to achieve a partial recovery, adding 73 to the total for the last four wickets, but with Aaditt Jain returning to claim three for 25 the Utrecht side faced an uphill struggle against Voorburg’s powerful batting.
After the early loss of Damien van den Berg, De Lange and Noah Croes, both of whom made 61, joined forces in a second-wicket stand of 124, and with Bas de Leede contributing a 24-ball 26, all but two of those runs in boundaries, Voorburg eased home with 15 overs to spare, leapfrogging their opponents to return to the top of the table.
The sensation of the day came at the Zomercomplex, the shock being not so much that HCC were able to beat Rotterdam but the completeness of a batting side which had until now seemed to regard 300 as a par score.
Daniel Crowley started the rout by removing openers Shoaib Minhas and Musa Ahmad inside the first eight overs, and despite Muhammad Gondal’s 44 and an aggressive 35 from Saqib Zulfiqar, the Rotterdammers were all out for 120 in 30.4 overs, Josh Brown cleaning up the lower order to finish with five for 36.
With Teun Kloppenburg hammering a 36-ball 65, including five fours and as many sixes, the Lions raced to 99 without loss in twelve overs, but when Sikander Zulfiqar removed him and Boris Gorlee with successive deliveries the chase suddenly faltered.
Zulfiqar added the scalp of Tonny Staal five runs later, and with Minhas bowling three straight maidens from the other end, picking up Brown’s wicket in the process, the game seemed to be swinging Rotterdam’s way.
Minhas now removed Clayton Floyd as well, but Zac Worden and Yash Patel knocked off the remaining runs without further mishap, Zulfiqar finishing with three for 36 and Minhas a remarkable two for 2 from 24 deliveries.
Extraordinary as this was, there was real drama later in the day as the two matches pitting the bottom four sides against each other turned out to be real thrillers, the two bottom teams recording vital last minute victories.
The day had begun very well for HermesDVS, for whom openers Ash Ostling and Daniel Doyle posted a club-record-equalling stand of 207 against HBS before Doyle was run out for 95 attempting a quick single to Heino Kuhn.
Ostling was then LBW to Kent Goedeke for 94, and at 230 for two with less than seven overs remaining, the Hermes middle order sacrificed wickets in the quest for as many runs as possible, Benno Boddendijk collecting three for 46 as Sebastiaan Braat made an unbeaten 28 and 52 were added.
This seemed likely to be too much for HBS, and although Tayo Walbrugh contributed 37 at 116 for five after 25 overs Hermes could have been forgiven for thinking that the points were theirs.
But Roelof van der Merwe now joined Lehan Botha, who was on 47, and together they added 152 in 23 overs, Botha needing just 42 deliveries to go from 50 to 100 as the tempo steadily accelerated.
Ten balls were remaining when Dutt finally bowled Botha for 132, made from 122 deliveries with 14 fours and one six, but the HBS pair had reduced the demand to just 15.
They still needed 11 as Hikmatullah Jabarkhail began the final over, but Van der Merwe and Reece Mason were equal to the task, Mason taking the winning single with one ball to spare, Van der Merwe remaining not out on 70.
Meanwhile in the Amsterdamse Bos, VRA were in pursuit of VOC Rotterdam’s total of 219 all out.
The Rotterdammers had recovered somewhat from 128 for six, Ethan Price making 43, Ahsan Malik 44 not out, and last man Ludwig Spies an enterprising 20, but Vikram Singh has taken his season’s tally to 23 wickets with four for 35, and Udit Nashier had collected three for 26.
VOC’s five-man seam attack reduced VRA to 67 for four when they replied, but with Teja Nidamanuru playing a vintage captain’s innings, well supported by Shariz Ahmad, they appeared to be on the brink of victory at 216 for seven.
Then Roman Harhangi, returning to the attack, turned the game on its head: first Darsh Abhinay was caught by Ludwig Spies, and then Adam Madgwick was trapped in front first ball.
That left Nidamanuru on 92 to face Ahsan Malik with four still needed, knowing that last man Shayan Moodley was at the other end.
He tried to hit Malik’s first delivery to the long on boundary, but succeeded only in finding the fielder at deep mid-on, who completed a sprawling catch to give VOC a sensational three-run victory.
TKcricket 