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.
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.
A piece of Dutch cricket history was rewritten at the Hazelaarweg on Sunday, when David Rushmere, Hermes’ new overseas, posted the highest score ever by a player on debut, plundering 169 from a hard-working but ineffective VOC attack.
27-year-old Rushmere, who played a couple of List A matches for South African provincial side Boland half a dozen years ago, came to the crease at 9 for one, and was watchful at first but then hammered a series of boundaries, including three in one over from former Dutch international Ahsan Malik.
Joined by Olivier Elenbaas with the score at 71 for three, he reached his half-century from 48 deliveries, and his century, the 18th time a player had achieved this in his first top-flight innings in the Netherlands, from 101 balls, by which time he had struck 16 boundaries.
Batting with supreme assurance and well supported by Elenbaas, he now expanded his range of shots, surpassing Tim Zoehrer’s debut record of 153 as the Hermes total reached 250 with seven overs remaining.
A tired Rushmere eventually fell to Malik when he was on 169, made from 140 deliveries with 26 fours and two sixes; his partnership of 184 with Elenbaas was a club record for the fourth wicket.
Elenbaas’s role had up to this point largely been taking singles to get Rushmere back on strike, and he reached his fifty, from 83 deliveries, just before losing his partner.
Now, however, he went on the attack, so effectively that when the final over began he had gone on to 84; Nick Statham gave him the strike with five balls left, but he could only manage 12 from them, and was left stranded on 96 not out, facing just 24 deliveries after passing fifty.
Hermes’ total of 328 for five always seemed likely to be beyond VOC, and although their new overseas Caleb Montague made 59 and they reached 94 for one in the first 15 overs of their reply, thereafter their challenge subsided, and they were all out for 192.
The pick of the Hermes bowlers was Sahil Kothari, whose four for 41 accounted for almost the whole of the VOC middle order.
There had been plenty of interest as well, some of it statistical, in the three matches played on Saturday.
Transformed over the winter from Punjab to Rotterdam CC, Sikander Zulfiqar’s side ran up the third-highest total in the club’s Topklasse history, their 338 against VRA Amsterdam at the Zomercomplex built around opener Musa Ahmad’s composed knock of exactly 100.
While he anchored one end, a succession of partners hammered the Amsterdammers’ bowling: coming in at 44 for three, Saqib Zulfiqar plundered a 60-ball 90 which included nine fours and five sixes, his brother Sikander compiled a relatively quiet 37 (but with three fours and two sixes), and then Burhan Niaz topped it off with a 42-ball 77, hitting five fours and six sixes to add to VRA’s misery.
Vikram Singh and Viraj Thakur each claimed three wickets as Rotterdam were all out off the last ball of their 50 overs, but former international (and Musa’s brother) Shariz Ahmad went wicketless, conceding 60 off his seven overs.
VRA were certainly not intimidated by this big total: skipper Teja Nidamanuru (55) and Singh (70) put on 134 for the first wicket in 20 overs, Singh smacking six sixes as he answered the Rotterdammers’ aggression in kind, and Johan Smal kept up the momentum with a solid 46.
But 105 were still needed with ten overs remaining, and by this time six wickets had fallen; it was now up to Udit Nashier, back with his old club, to finish the job, but although he made 59 from 43 deliveries the Rotterdam attack was able to hang on, and VRA finished 29 runs short of their target with the last pair together.
A fine all-round effort by Pierre Jacod, who made 52 and then claimed four for 30, was the key to Kampong’s successful start to the defence of their title, as they overcame HBS by 81 runs at Craeyenhout.
Young Joris van Oosterom had given the Crows a great start when he had international opener Max O’Dowd caught in the covers off the first ball he receeived, but a solid second-wicket stand of 72 between Damien van den Berg (42) and Scott Edwards (70) laid the foundations for a big total by Alex Roy’s Utrecht side.
Overseas Kent Goedeke and local seamer Benno Boddendijk bowled 20 overs on the trot as HBS skipper Tayo Walbrugh seemed content to let Kampong consolidate, only Van den Berg and Lorenzo Ingram falling during that passage of play, but once Julien de Mey had removed Edwards the middle order faltered, and it took Jacod’s half-century, his fourth in the Topklasse, and a run-a-ball 32 from skipper Roy, to get them to 256.
Lehan Botha took three for 54 for the Crows, while Van Oosterom returned to finish Jacod’s innings with a crushing yorker.
Roy started with the medium-pace of Shashank Kumar and Ingram’s left-arm spin, and although neither claimed a wicket they bowled tightly enough to have HBS already falling behind the asking rate.
Then Roy himself removed Goedeke and Walbrugh before running out danger-man Botha, and at 61 for four in the 21st over the home side’s challenge was starting to fade.
Keeper Lucas del Bianco did his best to hold things together with a defiant 65, but Jacod’s four-wicket haul ensured that there was no recovery, and when Del Bianco was the last man out the total was just 175.
The closest of Saturday’s matches was at Westvliet, where Voorburg, helped by an unbeaten century by opener Cedric de Lange, went into the final over before completing a four-wicket victory over HCC.
Put in to bat, HCC’s innings never really fired against a disciplined Voorburg attack, the star of which was Mees van Vliet with five for 53.
The Lions’ top and middle order got a series of starts, but only Shirsak Banerjee was able to build a substantial innings; he made 54 before he was freakishly run out, seamer Don Glover getting a boot to a powerful straight drive by Clayton Floyd and deflecting the ball onto the stumps with Banerjee stranded.
That was a key turning-point as HCC battled to recover from 140 for five, Ryan Klein having delayed their progress with an impeccable ten-over spell which conceded just 23 runs.
Josh Brown and Daniel Crowley chipped in with a 41-run ninth-wicket stand which helped their side to 230 for nine, and when Hidde Overdijk and Teun Kloppenburg reduced the home side to 70 for four it seemed as if HCC might be getting the upper hand.
De Lange, however, was still there, and although Voorburg were still in trouble at 150 for six with 14 overs remaining, that brought 17-year-old debutant Aarav Swaroop in to join the opener, just a year his senior.
The two teenagers proceeded to add 82 in an unbroken winning stand, De Lange finishing with 112 not out – his second Topklasse century – and Swaroop 43 not out.
Kloppenburg was the most successful of HCC’s bowlers with three for 28.
So, as the season nears its end, it’s time for us to come up with our seventh Topklasse Team of the Year.
RL: Once again, we cannot avoid the issue of overseas players, and how many we should include. Arguably, we could name a side like: Janett (VOC), Doyle-Calle (Hermes-DVS), Kaplan (Voorburg), Walbrugh (HBS), Melville (Voorburg), Brown (HCC), Bangs (Kampong), Shahzad (Punjab-Ghausia), Ruffell (VRA), Ralston (Excelsior) and Rossouw (HBS) which wouldn’t be too much of a travesty, but while it might make a point, it wouldn’t be a totally fair reflection of the season so far. So perhaps the sensible course is once again to give preference to local, or at least Dutch-qualified, players wherever possible, while including a small number of the most influential imports.
So here goes:
Starting with the openers, the first name on my sheet is that of Cedric de Lange (Voorburg), still eligible to play in the KNCB’s Under-17 competition but already a Topklasse regular, with 634 runs this season at 42.27. No other locally-produced opener has shown anything like the same degree of consistency, with some, like VRA’s Vikram Singh and HCC’s Tonny Staal, having distinctly disappointing returns. Musa Ahmad (Punjab) spent most of the season at three, but his promotion to opener brought him plenty of runs, and his 621 at 42.40 earns him a place in one or other of these positions. If we were to go for an overseas to partner De Lange, then Daniel Doyle-Calle’s 711 at 64.64 (at a strike rate of 105) for Hermes, although he fell away somewhat towards the end of the season, makes him the outstanding candidate.
Cedric de Lange
BdJ: De Lange is probably the easiest pick this season for what one suspects will be the first of many TK team of the year appearances. The 17 year-old doubtless has a bright future ahead of him both in the Topklasse and indeed in Orange, his maiden international call-up coming earlier than even he might have hoped one imagines. The second opener is a tougher pick, however. Musa Ahmad indeed did well opening, but with only four appearances at the top of the order probably doesn’t qualify. It’s perhaps recency bias that summons VOC’s Scott Jannet to mind – his unbeaten 83 in the relegation play-off arguably the single most consequential innings of the season. Conversely, we perhaps shouldn’t discount Doyle-Calle’s weight of runs merely because the lion’s share came at the start of the season. DDC’s early season form was a big part of Hermes’ dominance over the first few weeks of the competition, and ensured they had a cushion of safety even as their title challenge rather sputtered out.
There’s a rather more crowded field for numbers three through five, though again overseas players feature heavily. Voorburg’s Gavin Kaplan is an obvious contender again, while strong cases might be made for Kampong’s Lane Berrry – whose 684 runs for the champions came at an average over 50 and a blistering strike rate of 124, while VOC’s Danish number 4 Monty Singh also had an excellent debut season, and had his long commute from Denmark not limited him to ten appearances the Bloodhounds’ season might have looked rather different. Among the locals Kampong’s Pierre Jacod deserves at the very least an honourable mention among the batters with 403 runs at 57.57, though he’s generally been at his best further down the order. For my money though, we should probably stretch our definition of local players to include those set on qualifying for the Netherlands again. That would make room for Tayo Walbrugh and Johan Smal who, though both still a few months from eligibility (much to the frustration of the aforementioned selectors as the injuries and unavailabilities mount up ahead of the impending Bangladesh tour) have already been training with the national side and one imagines will be donning the Orange sooner rather than later. Walbrugh once again finished top of the run tables with 831 at an average of almost 60, while Smal was just two spots behind, his 715 runs at 55 crucial to keeping VRA in the top half of the table while other senior bats at the Bos seemed to struggle all season.
RL: There’s obviously a serious danger that our final eleven might start to look very like the satirically-intended one I named at the outset! The lack of outstanding local candidates is due to a mix of factors: the tendency of the clubs to pack their sides with overseas players, thus limiting the opportunities for their own products, combines with the presence of relatively few young Dutch players of genuine quality and the fact that the top Dutch batters either played relatively few games or had disappointing seasons. Only eight Dutch-qualified players figure in the top twenty of the batting averages, and of those Scott Edwards played only nine times for Kampong (and had five innings) and Noah Croes (Voorburg) one more. If we agree that Jacod ought to bat at six or seven, and if I’m allowed to insist that we only include one overseas in the top/middle order (Walbrugh again, for my money), then I’d want to make a case for two of Wes Barresi (465 runs at 42.27), Boris Gorlee (628 at 39.25) and Noah Croes (372 at 41.33). Or perhaps . . .
. . . all three, if Croes keeps wicket. Equally, Edwards’ 260 at 65.00 from his extremely limited opportunities is a pretty strong case too. If we’re going to confine ourselves to keepers with a more frequent presence, on the other hand, then the top candidates are probably Mark Wolfe (HCC) and Asad Zulfiqar (Hermes), with 20 victims apiece. VRA’s Jack Cassidy had 28, but then we’re back with the overseas vs. locals debate again. Zulfiqar bats higher up the order than Wolfe but had a fairly disappointing campaign with the bat, while young Wolfe, batting lower down, played some useful innings when the HCC top and middle order had struggled. So on balance I’d probably be inclined to give him the nod.
BdJ: Well it seeems every year we’re destined to have the same tussle, as to whether to adhere in our Topklasse Team of the Year selection to a rule that hasn’t applied in the actual competition for the better part of a decade now, and was more honoured in the breach when it did. If we are to make current Dutch-eligibility rather than Topklasse performance the principal qualification for this exercise we may as well just name the national team and have done with it. In a similar vein, while Scott Edwards doubless does a fine job with the gloves in Orange I frankly draw the line at picking a wicketkeeper here that basically never keeps wicket in the Topklasse. Edwards and Croes have a total of 7 appearances behind the stumps between them this season, and to my mind picking either as Topklasse keeper of the year would send us deep into the realm of farce. Monty Singh scored more runs and effected more dismissals than both combined despite missing half the season, away playing for Denmark rather than the Dutch. If we must look to Dutch-eligible glovemen then I’d argue Kampong’s actual keeper Damien van den Berg has a stronger case, doing a fine job behind the stumps and setting the tone at the top of the order with some 400 runs at a run-a-ball. The Crows’ Lucas del Bianco had a comparable season with the bat, but a glaring 30 byes probably disqualifies him there.
Turning to seamers we are inevitably confronted with a familiar quandry, as the two leading quicks in the comp are likewise non-Dutch-eligible. HCC’s Joshua Brown took 34 wickets at 15.32 while VRA’s Peter Ruffel claimed 33 scalps at 16.55, and both were crucial to keeping their sides in the top half of the table. There is however a tad more local competition in the fast bowling stakes, with Hermes skipper Sebastiaan Braat’s 30 wickets at 16.67 earning him a spot in the top five, closely followed by Kampong captain Alex Roy, who picked up 29 wickets at 14.52 while leading his side to the title. TK TOTY regular Hidde Overdijk also deserves an honourable mention at the very least, his 26 wickets coming at just 13.69 apiece.
Alexander Roy
RL: Maybe we should pick two sides, one limiting ourselves to, say, two or three overseas players, and the other a No-Holds-Barred team, a bit like the one I ironically suggested at the outset? I for one hope that the KNCB finally gets a grip on the nuclear arms race of overseas player recruitment over the winter!
Turning to the spinners, we’ve already mentioned Musa Ahmad, Wes Barresi and Pierre Jacod in our discussion of the batting, and if all three make it into the final eleven we have a pretty reasonable array of slow bowling. Even I, though, would find it difficult to go past the Crows’ Jayden Rossouw, the competition’s leading wicket-taker with 38 at 19.37. With four off-spinners this attack would, admittedly, have a certain sameness about it, but we have to play with the cards we’re dealt, and left-armers and leg-spinners have not been conspicuous among the wicket-takers this year.
BdJ: I’d argue that four slow bowlers of any ilk would be a bit much in a season largely dominated by the quicks, but picking four right arm finger spinners of whom only two made the top ten wicket-takers seems entirely excessive. Nonetheless I’m going to have to give at least an honourable shout-out to one more right-arm tweaker here, namely VOC’s Arnav Jain, who may only have bagged 19 scalps this season but went at just 3.44 an over. If offspin is generally seen as a defensive art there’s a strong case to be made that that’s a better showing than the relatively leaky Barresi or the objectively expensive Ahmad. Among the purveyors of more esoteric or aggressive spin there’s only one genuine stand-out, namely Hermes’ leggie Hikmatullah Jabarkhail. His 32 wickets at 16.5 played a big part in the Schiedammers’ early dominance, and would make him a sure pick were it not for his hailing from Belgium. Similarly Excelsior stalwart Lorenzo Ingram to my mind has a better case than either Ahmad or Barresi, with more wickets at a better average than either and at an economy of just 3.29 – the best of any front line bowler in the competition – and a better batting average to boot. But Ingram of course, despite a Topklasse career spanning well over a decade, is not yet eligible to play for the Netherlands.
I will once again plead that we ought be picking a Topklasse XI rather than a Dutch development squad here, and point out that even if we were picking the latter at least those on track for eligibility should be accorded equal treatment, but will defer to experience when it comes to the final word…
RL:One might take the position that given the apparent indifference of the clubs to the fututre of Dutch cricket, our own annual selection might at least serve by contrast as rebuke or aspiration, but on the other hand there’s a strong case for reporting things as they aare. Considering the our differing positions on the overseas question, it’s remakable how little divergence there eventually turned out to be in our preferred selections. While I remain sceptical of treating palyers on the path to qualification as though they were already there, I’ll concede Smal has a marginally stronger claim than Musa to a place, at least a batting slot. While Ingram has not even comitted to that path, he is unquestionably a long-standing servant of the Dutch domestic game, and indeed would add variety to an otherwise offspin-heavy spin attack, so once again am happy to defer to my colleague there. On the keeping question, Cassidy certainly had a fine season, helped no doubt by the quality of the quick bowlers he’s kept to. Van den Berg’s fewer dismissals are balanced by fewer byes conceded, and there’s little to choose between them in terms or runs scored except the rate at which they scored them, so on balance van den Berg edges it irrespective of the overseas question. Finally it seems to me that given his side’s success and his on contibution to it, Alex Roy is the outstanding candidate to captain our team of the year.
Touch wood by the time we come to do this exercise next year the KNCB may have found a way of encouraging or forcing clubs to rectrict their use of overseas players, if not we’ll doubless again be wrestling with this dilemma, and hopefully diverting you all by arguin it out in public. For now though, here is TKcricket’s 2025 Team of the Year:
Daniel Doyle-Calle (Hermes), Cedric de Lange (Voorburg), Johan Smal (VRA), Tayo Walbrugh (HBS), Lorenzo Ingram (Kampong), Damien van den Berg (Kampong), Pierre Jacod (Kampong), Sebastiaan Braat (Hermes), Alex Roy (c) (Kampong), Joshua Brown (HCC), Jayden Rossouw (HBS).
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.
Winning the toss and batting proved to be the winning strategy in the T20 Cup semi-finals on Sunday, as HCC and VRA set their opponents targets of eight an over or just short of it and marched into next week’s final.
HCC suffered an early setback against Hermes-DVS at De Diepput when Oliver White clattered his own stumps while attempting to hit Aryan Dutt into the Van Hogenhoucklaan, but then Clayton Floyd and skipper Boris Gorlee added 80 for the second wicket in ten overs before Gorlee was stumped off Hikmatullah Jabarkhail for a 35-ball 67 which included eight fours and three sixes.
Floyd had been much more subdued, but he opened out after his captain’s departure, going after Jabarkhail and reaching 26 before he was dismissed by Olivier Elenbaas.
Hidde Overdijk and Thijs Vrolijk added 27 in the final three overs to take their side to 156 for six, Elenbaas claiming two for 27 and Braat conceding just 23 runs in his four overs.
Daniel Doyle-Calle and Ash Ostling put on 18 from the first three overs, but a moment’s hesitation by Doyle when he was called through by his partner for a single to midwicket cost him his wicket, Hidde Overdijk’s direct hit finding him just short.
Teun Leijer removed Ostling in the next over, and when Jan-Wieger Overdijk dismissed Ralph Elenbaas Hermes were in trouble at 34 for three.
Olivier Elenbaas (22 from 19 deliveries) and Dutt (17 from 16) added 29, but then Floyd removed Dutt and Justin Trijzelaar claimed Elebaas and Asad Zulfiqar in the next over, and at 66 for six with eight overs left the issue was effectively settled.
Braat and Mussayab Jamil did their best to turn the game around, putting on 43 from 23 deliveries, but another double-wicket over from Trijzelaar, this time including Braat for 19, followed by Hidde Overdijk’s dismissal ofJamil for a 13-ball 21, ended the revival, and Hermes were all out for 121 with one over remaining.
Trijzelaar finished with four for 28, Hidde Overdijk claiming two for 18.
At Westvliet, VRA were given a decent start against Voorburg by Vikram Singh and Shirase Rasool, although the former was well below his hard-hitting best in making a 20-ball 16 and the Amsterdammers suffered a further setback when Rasool, who had looked in very good touch as he made 41 from 25 deliveries, was forced to retire ill with the total on 67 for one after nine overs.
Cedric de Lange showed his versatility by removing Teja Nidamanuru and Shariz Ahmad in successive overs, finishing with two for 10 from his two overs, but Jack Cassidy (36 from 22) and Ibaad Zaidi (25 not out from 18) added 60 for the fifth wicket, and VRA closed on 159 for seven.
Nidamanuru removed the dangerous De Lange in the second over of Voorburg’s reply, and then Ben Fletcher had the equally dangerous Noah Croes caught behind by Cassidy to reduce the chasers to 10 for two.
Waseem Mohsen, however, was still at the other end, and his 42-ball 58 kept his side in the game; but when he was well caught by Singh at long on off Fletcher the score was 99 for five, and 61 were still required from 33 deliveries.
That was a big ask, and despite a 25-ball 30 from Ryan Klein Voorburg could only manage 137 for eight, 23 runs short of their target.
Fletcher finished with four for 25 and Peter Ruffell two for 27.
So the final, to be played at Sportpark Harga in Schiedam next Saturday, will be between HCC, trying to take the Cup for the second time, and VRA, who have won it four times, most recentlyin 2020.
The battle for semi-final places in the Topklasse T20 Cup produced a thrilling climax on Saturday, as Punjab-Ghausia fell just three runs short of Hermes-DVS’s 160 for five, and saw themselves edged out of the top four by the narrowest of net run rate margins.
Starting the final round on top of the table but with a distinct NRR disadvantage compared with their closest rivals, Punjab needed a victory to make absolutely sure of a spot in Sunday’s semi-finals.
But after winning the toss and putting Hermes in, Sikander Zulfiqar saw the Schiedammers accumulate a challenging total, thanks to opener Daniel Doyle-Calle’s 30-ball 40 and a stand of 76 for the fourth wicket between Olivier Elenbaas, who made 37 from 29 deliveries, and Aryan Dutt, whose 26-ball 50 ensured that Punjab would have a significant chase on their hands.
Tehzeeb Haider (two for 16) and Muhammad Gondal (two for 22) went for under five an over, but the rest of Punjab’s bowling was a good deal more expensive.
Musa Ahmad and Shoaib Minhas gave their side’s reply a flowing start, and at 127 for three Punjab were favourably placed, needing 34 off the last five overs with seven wickets in hand.
But then Sebastiaan Braat trapped Burhan Niaz in front, and as wickets fell the asking rate began to climb; Braat added Gandal and Tasir Usman to his tally with successive deliveries, finishing with four for 46, and when Dutt started the final over 11 were still required.
Despite the assistance of four byes Fawad Shinwari and Gondal could only manage three singles, and Hermes were home by three runs.
To make matters worse for Punjab VRA had dismissed Sparta 1888 for 62 in the Amsterdamse Bos, their six-wicket victory in 13.4 overs further improving the Amsterdammers’ NRR, and with HCC and Voorburg recording comfortable victories to leapfrog their rivals, Punjab were squeezed into fifth place.
The NRR margin between third and fifth was just 0.147 in the end, but it was enough to see Punjab eliminated.
Relegated from the 50-over Topklasse, Sparta had started their T20 campaign promisingly enough, but their recent results had been disappointing, and now they collapsed to 22 for five inside the powerplay.
Then young seamer Shayan Moodley claimed three wickets in his opening over, a triple-wicket maiden, and the innings ended on 62.
Juandre Scheepers and Ahsan Malik picked up two wickets apiece for Sparta when VRA replied, but the outcome was foregone, and Jack Cassidy and Imaan Zaidi knocked off the remaining runs quickly enough to see their side into third place on the table, just ahead of Hermes.
HCC finished the round robin phase in style, posting 166 for seven against Excelsior ‘20 at De Diepput and then bowling their opponents out for 75.
Both sides were without key overseas players, Josh Brown (HCC) and Raynard van Tonder (Excelsior) having departed, but with Mark Wolfe, promoted to four, making a 31-ball 36 and Tonny Staal hitting a punishing 39 from 25 deliveries with three fours and two sixes, Sam Rahaley’s four for 31 wasn’t enough to keep the home side’s scoring rate down.
Rahaley then did his best to keep Excelsior in the game with 37 from 33 deliveries, but Daniel Crowley took four for 16 and Clayton Floyd three for 17, and with Nihal Reddy the only other batter to register double figures the Schiedammers ended their season on a disappointing note.
Voorburg were similarly dominant against HBS Craeyenhout at Westvliet, making 168 for five, although the Crows put up a somewhat better display with the bat, reaching 131 before they were all out.
Cedric de Lange and Waseem Mohsen gave the home side a solid start with an opening stand of 75, De Lange going on to 59 from 40 deliveries, and then Noah Croes managed the closing overs with a 24-ball 35 not out.
Mees van Vliet picked up three quick wickets when HBS replied, and at 28 for five it seemed that the Crows might be another side to be bowled out very cheaply.
They were partially rescued by their lower order, however, with Wes Barresi, coming in at nine, top-scoring with 35 from 19 deliveries and Kyle Klein and Joris van Oosterom contributing twenties; Van Vliet finished with three for 21.
At Sportpark Eindenhout, Rood en Wit finished their tough campaign in the Topklasse T20 on a comparative high, not only beating VOC by 45 runs but leapfrogging HBS to avoid the wooden spoon.
Alexander de Graaff’s 32 and 31 from Jordan Woolf enabled to Haarlemmers to reach a respectable 128 for seven, Roman Harhangi claiming three for 18 for VOC, and then Saber Zakhil (three for 7 from three overs), Manzoor Tarake, Ismatullah Nasery and Ben Thornton ran through the Bloodhounds’ batting, bowling them out for 81.
VOC, again finishing eighth on the table, will now face a promotion/relegation play-off against the Hoofdklasse winners, where Kampong go into the semi-finals with an unbeaten record.
Sunday’s semi-finals in the Topklasse will pit HCC against Hermes-DVS at De Diepput, while Voorburg will take on VRA at Westvliet.
What a difference an hour makes, especially when the Dutch weather is part of the story: the three matches which started at two o’clock on Sunday all followed a similar course and were played to a finish, whereas those which began later were disrupted by rain, one of them ending in abandonment.
All of this, of course, had its effect on the table, although some clubs will have to wait until next week to discover whether their prospects were improved or harmed by the intervention of Pluvius.
HCC, in particular, had worked their way into a winning position at Craeyenhout, batting on through splatters of rain to reach 177 for six off their 20 overs.
HBS had reduced them to 55 for four at one stage, of which Boris Gorlee had made an 18-ball 30 before Julian de Mey removed him, adding the scalp of Clayton Floyd in his next over, but then Mark Wolfe (35 from 25) and Tonny Staal added 77 for the fifth wicket.
After Wes Barresi had Wolfe smartly stumped by Martijn Scholte Hidde Overdijk joined Staal for a final flourish, Staal finishing with an unbeaten 44 and Overdijk smacking 35 from just 15 deliveries before becoming De Mey’s third victim.
Before HBS could begin their reply the rain became heavier and the covers came on, and they stayed on until the match was abandoned; the point HCC picked up from the No result should be enough to see them into the semi-finals, but defeat by Excelsior next week and a combination of the ‘wrong’ results elsewhere could still see them miss out.
The other match disrupted by the weather was at Westvliet, but in this case Voorburg gained full advantage from the position they had established by reducing Rood en Wit to 52 for six inside 13 overs.
After a long delay Voorburg were set a target of 25 in five overs, and Carl Mumba and Henry Melville needed only nine deliveries to knock off the runs and take the points.
The most significant match of the day was in the Amsterdamse Bos, where Punjab-Ghausia restricted VRA to 120 for nine, 58 of those runs coming from the bat of Jack Cassidy.
Darsh Abhinay had the next highest score with 19, but with Saqib Zulfiqar claiming three for 20 the home side’s innings never really fired, and Punjab were able to produce a measured response, winning by seven wickets with 14 deliveries to spare.
Shoaib Minhas made 35 before he was run out, Sharad Hake having previously given VRA some hope by removing Musa Ahmad and Rushdi Jappie with successive deliveries, but Saqib and Burhan Niaz were equal to the challenge, the former ending on 57 not out and Niaz on 21.
The win took Pinjab back to the top of the table, but VRA dropped to fifth, behind Hermes-DVS on net run rate despite the latter’s surprise loss to VOC at the Hazelaarweg.
Olivier Elenbaas’s unbeaten 40 was the high point of the Schiedammers’ disappointing 125 for six, and VOC then produced one of their more convincing batting efforts of the season.
Hikmatullah Jabarkhail did his best to keep Hermes in the game, dismissing Tim de Kok for 25 and Ramdas Upadhyaya for31, and when the Bloodhounds subsided from 96 for two to 115 for five it was the visitors who might have scented blood.
But Arnav Jain and Jelte Schoonheim held firm, and saw their side to a five-wicket victory with three overs to spare.
Events at Thurlede followed a strikingly similar course, with Excelsior ‘20 dismissing Sparta 1888 for 123 and going on to win by six wickets in 17.4 overs.
Excelsior skipper Roel Verhagen claimed three for 17, but it was his predecessor as captain, former international Tom Heggelman, who had picked up two wickets on his return to the colours against Rood en Wit last week, who did the crucial damage, removing Sparta’s overseas trio of Juandre Scheepers (36), Karl Klesse (24) and Lukas Boorer (11).
He finished with three for 19, and with Nihal Reddy claiming two for 23 Excelsior’s attack exhibited more edge than ithas for much of the season.
Then Raynard van Tonder hammered a 33-ball 69 which included seven fours and five sixes, and although Umar Baker took three for 11, including Van Tonder’s wicket and that of the almost equally dangerous Sam Rahaley, Stan van Troost and Misra Mohool saw Excelsior home.
With VOC scheduled to play Rood en Wit next week, Excelsior are not yet certain to avoid a rfelegation play-off against the Hoofdklasse T20 champions, and will need to beat HCC at De Diepput to be sure of staying in at least seventh place.
At the other end of the table, VRA will squeeze into the semi-finals if they beat Sparta and Hermes-DVS lose to Punjab, while victories for VRA, Voorburg – who take on HBS at Westvliet – and Hermes would see HCC miss out were they to be beaten by Excelsior.
It promises to be an enthralling final round of the round robin, and with the match at De Diepput, somewhat bizarrely, scheduled to start an hour after the other four, HCC and Excelsior will know exactly what they have to do to protect their respective positions.
And then, of course, there’s the Dutch weather . . . . .
So, with two rounds to play, four teams are level on points at the top of the T20 table, with two others one point and two points behind them, and the race to the semi-finals of this season’s Topklasse T20 Cup could scarcely be more tense.
No doubt somwhat to their own surprise, Hermes-DVS, the only team not to have played on Saturday, remain at the top on net run rate, with Punjab-Ghausia having fluffed their chance to overtake them.
After seeing off a spirited challenge from Excelsior ‘20 in the early game, Punjab might well have thought they were headed for a double win when they had reduced HCC to 48 for five in the ninth over of their innings.
But Mark Wolfe and Daniel Crowley, coming together at 71 for seven, added 53 precious runs in an unbroken stand, Wolfe finishing on 32 and Crowley on 31, and the innings closed on 124.
That still seemed unlikely to be enough against Punjab’s powerful batting line-up, but Clayton Floyd (two for 12 from his four overs) and Oliver White (three for 16, also from four) combined wicket-taking with exemplary economy, and when the last Punjab wicket fell three deliveries from the scheduled end, the Rotterdammers were still 19 runs short of their target.
There had been no such collapse earlier in the day, when Punjab chased down Excelsior’s imposing 179 for five to win by seven wickets with eight balls to spare.
Not yet free of the relegation zone, Excelsior had posted their best total of the campaign so far, Raynard van Tonder (46 from 23 deliveries), Sam Rahaley (45 from 32) and Tim Etman (50 from 35) all contributing significantly.
But after Karson Edward had removed both openers, Musa Ahmad having made a 38-ball 48, South African Rushdie Jappie, who has made more than 850 runs this season for Punjab’s second team, guided the Rotterdammers home, his unbeaten 61 coming from 38 deliveries with four fours and three sixes.
Burhan Niaz gave him great support with 31 not out from 18, the pair adding 78 runs from just 38 deliveries.
Without four of their first team, all on international duty in Bangladesh, VRA Amsterdam could derive some comfort from the fact that their opponents on Saturday were the two sides at the foot of the table, and were no doubt delighted to come away with four points.
Playing on their second ground in the Amsterdamse Bos, VRA began their day by dismissing HBS Craeyenhout for 90, Darsh Abhinay claiming three for 14; it was, however, Sharad Hake and Leon Turmaine who possibly struck the most significant blows, removing Wes Barresi and Tayo Walbrugh for 14 and 10 respectively.
The home side then needed only 9.4 overs to knock off the runs, Johan Smal (29 not out) and Viraj Thakur (30 not out) putting on 62 from 43 deliveries to make sure of an eight-wicket victory.
Rood en Wit, by contrasted, fully extended their hosts, setting them a testing 165 target, thanks in large measure to a fourth-wicket stand of 80 between skipper Jordan Woolf (66 from 44) and Saber Zakhil (40 from 34).
This enabled them to recover from 13 for three to 164 for seven, and although VRA started well with an opening stand of 90 between Shirase Rasool (62 from 45) and Jack Cassidy (35 from 26), it took them to within one ball of their allotted quota before Ash Oppu hit the winning boundary.
Woolf and Zakhil were again the stars for the Haarlemmers, claiming three for 39 and two for 23.
Voorburg, with the absence of Noah Croes in Bangladesh adding to their selection difficulties, could thank stand-in opener Waseem Mohsen for their 47-run victory over Sparta 1888 at the Bermweg, a result which kept them in touch with the leading quartet.
Mohsen, who has hit three big centuries in the Eerste Klasse this season, including a 130-ball 219 against Concordia Delft, had contributed a promising cameo against HCC last week, but now he batted almost throughout the innings, hitting nine fours and three sixes in a 65-ball knock of 95 before he was run out in the final over, attempting to retain the strike.
He was given little support until the advent of Udit Nashier, although Tom de Leede might be thought to have been a trifle unlucky to have been caught in the deep off a high full toss from Umar Baker which would certainly have been sent upstairs in a more elevated level of the game.
Coming in at 75 for four, however, Nashier helped Mohsen almost double the score before he was out for 29, and Voorburg closed on 163 for six.
Carl Mumba removed both Sparta’s openers, and then Nashier cut through the middle order, including the dangerous Lukan Boorer when he had made 30, and with Nashier finishing with four for 18 the home side was all out for 106.
That defeat might have spelled the end of Sparta’s hopes of reaching the semi-finals, but their second opponents of the day were struggling VOC Rotterdam, and with Juandre Scheepers (61 from 38) and Shaquille Martina (55 from 48) putting on 99 for the first wicket Manminder Singh’s side reached 161 for seven.
VOC, though, who had managed a total of 113 in their last two chases, found Sparta’s attack much more to their liking, despite the return of former international Mudassar Bukhari for his first outing of the season, and with Scott Janett and Tim de Kok giving them a decent start with twenties, Jason van der Meulen contributing a 17-ball 39 and Aaditt Jain making 31, they reached 149 for six with eight balls remaining.
Then Ahsan Malik returned to remove Jain, and VOC needed 13 from the last seven deliveries as Roman Harhangi joined Jelte Schoonheim.
They managed six off the first four balls of Scheepers’ final over, making the equation seven from two, but when Harhangi was run out trying to keep Schoonheim on strike, six were needed off the last delivery.
Arthur Koppejan could only contrive a single, and with Schoonheim stranded on 19 not out Sparta won by just four runs.
With a full round of matches on Sunday, the most significant is VRA’s home encounter with Punjab-Ghausia, while Hermes-DVS will take on VOC at the Hazelaarweg and HCC will face HBS at Craeyenhout.
Voorburg will overtake either VRA or Punjab is they are able to beat Rood en Wit at Westvliet, while Sparta need to defeat Excelsior at Thurlede; their opponents, though, will know that another loss could see them in danger of their second relegation of the season.
Kampong, meanwhile, continued their unbeaten run in the Hoofdklasse competition, seeing off their nearest challengers, Bloemendaal.
After a busy weekend the T20 Cup table has a much more familiar look, with Hermes-DVS, HCC and VRA staking strong claims to semi-final spots and Excelsior ’20 joining VOC, HBS and Rood en Wit in a tightening battle to avoid relegation.
Hermes began their weekend with a routine win at Sportpark Bermweg over Sparta 1888, who after a promising start to their campaign are also drifting towards the lower reaches of the table, with Asad Zulfiqar’s 35, Olivier Elenbaas’s 32 and twenties from Daniel Doyle, Ralph Elenbaas and Aryan Dutt propelling them to 186 for seven.
Sparta had no answer to this, only a dogged 45 from opener Shaquille Martina, who batted throughout the innings before he was the last man out, enabling them to reach 109 as Sebastiaan Braat picked up four for 19.
Hermes then travelled back from Capelle a/d IJssel to Sportpark Harga, where they were comprehensively beaten by VRA Amsterdam.
With Shariz Ahmad claiming four for 16 they could only muster 123 before they were all out, 52 of those runs coming from Olivier Elenbaas, and VRA required only 16 and a half overs to complete a nine-wicket victory, Vikram Singh making a 45-ball 65 before he seemed somewhat unfortunate to be given leg-before to Sahil Kothari.
He and Teja Nidamanuru had put on 106 for the first wicket, and Nidamanuru then finished the job, ending unbeaten on 49.
Sunday saw Hermes again in action, this time at Thurlede, where they proved too strong for Schiedam neighbours Excelsior ‘20.
Braat was again amongst the wickets with four for 15 as Excelsior battled their way to 109 for nine, Sam Rahaley top-scoring with 34, and this time it was Ash Ostling who led them to an eight-wicket victory, making a 37-ball 44 not out and sharing an opening stand of 55 with Doyle (29).
Double victories in Sunday took HCC into second spot on the table, with a narrow NRR advantage over Punjab-Ghausia, who enjoyed a weekend off.
Despite losing Josh Brown and Boris Gorlee to the Jain brothers inside the first four overs, the Lions posted the weekend’s highest total with 190 for seven against VOC Rotterdam at De Diepput, thanks to a 43-ball 64 from Oliver White and 56 from 33 deliveries from Clayton Floyd.
Brown then demolished VOC almost single-handed, returning the astonishing figures of 4 – 1 – 7 – 6, including a hat-trick, as the Bloodhounds again collapsed in dramatic fashion, only Ramdas Upadhyaya reaching double figures as they were all out for 48; White, who had started the rout, finished with three for 11.
HCC then made it two out of two with a five-wicket win against Voorburg, who are still suffering from the loss of Michael Levitt and Ryan Klein after last week’s unfortunate collision.
Henry Melville’s 28-ball 37 was the highlight of Voorburg’s 142 for nine, Jan-Wieger Overdijk the pick of the bowlers with two for 16, but with White contributing 44 and Gorlee an unbeaten 47 HCC reached their target with five deliveries to spare.
It was a triumphant weekend for VRA’s batters, who lost only four wickets as they garnered as many points from their two games and moved into a menacing fifth place on the table.
Having beaten Hermes on Saturday, the Amsterdammers completed their weekend in Schiedam with a seven-wicket victory over Excelsior on Sunday.
Opener Raynard van Tonder scored almost half Excelsior’s total of 116 for eight, making a 45-ball 57 before he was fourth out at 102, and VRA reached that target with almost five overs to spare, Nidamanuru leading the way with 33 from 22 deliveries and Shariz Ahmad and Viraj Thakur completing the task.
The most miserable weekend was suffered by HBS Craeyenhout, who lost at home to VOC on Saturday and then lost again, this time to Rood en Wit at Sportpark Eindenhout on Sunday.
It took 32 from Navjit Singh and 32 not out from Benno Boddendijk, who shared an unbroken eighth-wicket stand of 49 with Julian de Mey, to enable the Crows to reach 150 for seven, and when the visitors were on 18 for two it looked as if that might be enough.
But skipper Tim de Kok weighed in with 41, and then Jason van der Meulen hammered a 46-ball 88 not out, including seven fours and six sixes, to see VOC to a six-wicket victory with just one ball to spare.
Rood en Wit had so far gone winless, but they were given a great start on Sunday by an opening stand of 81 between Alexander de Graaff (48) and Ben Thornton (34), and although Boddendijk bowled his side back into the game with three for 10 from his four overs, 37 from skipper Jordan Woolf enabled the Haarlemmers to reach 148 for seven, their best total of the campaign.
Paul van Meekeren had Reece Mason caught behind off the first ball of the HBS reply, and when Ismatullah Nasery added Tayo Walbrugh to his impressive list of scalps the Crows were in evident trouble.
They suffered a further blow when Azzam Khan was forced to retire, and although Navjit Singh (56 from 45 with five sixes) and Martijn Scholte were able to achieve a partial recovery, Rood en Wit kept the upper hand, Arnav Mishra taking two for 15 from his four overs and Nasery finishing with three for 17 as HBS closed on 131 for eight.
The Crows have yet to face VRA, HCC and Voorburg, and there will be some concern at Craeyenhout with two and possibly three sides heading for the Hoofdklasse T20 competition next season; Kampong Utrecht are continuing to storm through this year’s Hoofdklasse T20 Cup, and would make formidable opponents for whoever finishes eighth in the Topklasse version.
