Rod Lyall 08/06/26
HCC missed an opportunity to move into second place on the Topklasse table on Sunday, when they lost to VRA by five wickets in a hard-fought, at times attritional battle in the Amsterdamse Bos.
Put in to bat in overcast conditions which clearly favoured the bowlers, HCC began confidently enough, but then Sharad Hake and Johan Smal grabbed three wickets in nine deliveries to break open the middle order, and when stand-in captain Teun Kloppenburg fell four overs later, the Lions found themselves on 52 for four.
The lower order was partially successful in digging them out of trouble, keeper Yash Patel top-scoring with 35 as Teja Nidamanuru turned to his four-man spin attack of Sharif Ahmad, himself, Darsh Abhinay and Udit Nashier, and a series of twenties managed to get the total up to 204.
Josh Brown removed both openers when VRA replied, but a 60-run third-wicket stand between Smal (29) and Nidamanuru (36) put the hosts back on track.
Then Justin Trijzelaar took a hand, dismissing both and adding the scalp of Jack Cassidy, and at 83 for five VRA appeared to be heading for defeat.
That brought Ibaad Zaidi in to join Shariz, and they slowly built up what eventually became the match-winning partnership, Shariz making 45 not out and Zaidi posting his second Topklasse half-century, going on to a career-best, unbeaten 70.
The pair’s cautious and extremely effective approach was highlighted by the fact that they only hit three boundaries between them in their stand of 125, before Zaidi finished it with a six with 20 deliveries remaining.
The scheduling of this match for Sunday meant that, although the start was delayed by 45 minutes because of a wet outfield, the teams were able to avoid the disruptions which the weather created the previous day.
At the Zomercomplex, Rotterdam withstood a remarkable solo batting performance by Hermes-DVS’s David Rushmere and a long rain delay before they could start their abbreviated reply, their five-wicket victory taking them back to the top of the table.
Coming in at 2 for one, Rushmere made 118 out of a Hermes total of 188 before he was last man out in the 39th over.
He received very little support from the rest of the batting, only Daniel Doyle-Calle, Zaffar Chaudhary and Ralph Elenbaas reaching double figures, most of the damage being done by Rotterdam spinners Ahmad Shafiq and Saqib Zulfiqar with three wickets apiece and Shoaib Minhas with two.
After a long wait the players were finally able to return to the field, with Rotterdam set a DLS target of 165 in 36 overs.
They did it in just over 27, mainly due to Muhammad Gondal’s 63-ball 70 and an unbeaten 34 from Saqib, and results elsewhere saw Hermes return to the foot of the table.
The most remarkable of those results was at the Hazelaarweg, where a depleted Kampong dismissed VOC for 141, but were then themselves dismissed for just 132, losing by nine runs
With rain clouds threatening to bring the match to a premature end and at least 20 overs needing to be bowled to achieve a valid result, Kampong’s batters were caught between two stools, trying to knock off the runs as quickly as possible, but losing too many wickets in the process.
Two brief interruptions heightened their anxiety, but in the end VOC’s bowlers were able to have the last word, despite Damien van den Berg’s 40-ball 47 at the start of the innings.
Kampong were, of course, withut key batters Max O’Dowd and Scott Edwards, but even so they will have been deeply disappointed that they were unable to capitalise on the efforts of their bowlers, Pierre Jacod claiming three for 26 and Lorenzo Ingram and Saurabh Zalpuri picking up two apiece as VOC slumped from 61 for one to 141 all out.
The national selectors had caused even greater problems for Voorburg as they took on HBS at Craeyenhout, but 59 from Gavin Kaplan, recalled to the colours for this eventuality, and a maiden Topklasse century of 100 not out by stand-in captain Ryan Klein, enabled them to reach 266 for seven in 50 overs.
The latter stages of the innings were not without controversy, as the umpires kept the players on the field during several showers and then, after an interruption and an early lunch, bringing them back to complete the innings.
A further long delay followed, before HBS were able to start their chase with the target 161 from 20 overs.
Only one over could be bowled, however, before the umpires ruled that after so much rain conditions were unsafe for play to continue and the match was abandoned, each side taking a point.
TKcricket 