Category: Uncategorized

Rod Lyall 03/08/20

Leaders Punjab Rotterdam and HCC both had comfortable wins on Sunday to preserve their unbeaten records, but most of the drama of the round came at the Bermweg, where Sparta 1888 hung on to achieve a remarkable one-wicket victory over Voorburg.

Chasing Voorburg’s relatively modest total of 191 for eight, Sparta began well, a useful third-wicket stand between Lenert van Wyk and Mudassar Bukhari, both of whom made 36, getting them almost halfway to their target.

But once they had gone, a mid-order collapse triggered by international leg-spinner Philippe Boissevain saw the home side slump from 104 for three to 150 for nine.

42 were still needed when Usman Saleem joined Nasratullah Ibrahimkil at the crease, and with Boissevain in rampant mood Voorburg appeared to be on the brink of victory.

But there were plenty of overs in hand, and Sparta’s final pair gradually picked off the runs, doing so so effectively that the winning runs came with 17 deliveries remaining. Boissevain finished with six for 34.

Earlier, Voorburg opener Righardt Pieterse had posted a maiden Topklasse half-century, facing 104 deliveries and sharing useful partnerships with Bas de Leede and Aryan Dutt.

Pieterse eventually became one of four victims for Manminder Singh (at a cost of 53 runs), who worked his way through the middle order, while Max Hoornweg collected three for 32.

The individual batting performance of the day again came from Punjab’s international opening batsman Stef Myburgh, who struck a 95-ball, unbeaten 127 as his side made short work of pursuing ACC’s 209 at the Zomercomplex. Myburgh hit 15 fours and eight sixes.

That ACC managed to reach 209 was due in large part to Aryan Kumar, playing for the first time this season, who came to the wicket at 123 for six and proceeded to make a brisk 51.

Sikander Zulfiqar took three for 49, and there was a brace of wickets apiece for his brother Saqib, Mubashar Hussain and Teja Nidamanuru.

Then Myburgh and Rehmat Zulfiqar got Punjab off to a lightning start, smacking 76 off the first ten overs and pushing their opening stand to 89 before Rehmat was bowled by Devanshu Arya for a 36-ball 41.

But Myburgh was unstoppable, adding 50 of a second-wicket stand of 62 with Asad Zulfiqar and a further 36 in a more equal partnership of 61 with Saqib Zulfiqar, who finished on 21.

The task for HCC’s batsmen at De Diepput was a good deal easier: HBS Craeyenhout never recovered from the early dismissal of the talismanic Tobias Visée, and were dismissed for 127, Ferdi Vink’s fighting 43 and his eighth-wicket stand of 52 with young Martijn Scholte the only bright spots in an otherwise disappointing effort.

All HCC’s bowlers had a piece of the action, with Clayton Floyd, Reinier Bijloos, Jan-Wieger Overdijk and Damian Crowley each picking up a couple of wickets and Olivier Klaus one.

In the absence of Boris Gorlee and Hidde Overdijk HCC might have experienced a mild flutter at 63 for three in reply, but Yash Patel and Felix Vecchi rose to the occasion, more than doubling the score in an unbroken fourth-wicket stand and making 34 and 32 respectively, seeing their side to a seven-wicket victory with almost half the overs remaining.

It is increasingly looking as if meeting between Punjab and HCC on 23 August will have the character of a non-title decider.

Another of Sunday’s absentees was VRA Amsterdam skipper Peter Borren, who split the webbing of his left hand during Friday evening’s T20 Cup match, and this led to Vikram Singh, at 17 years and 206 days, perhaps becoming the top division’s youngest-ever captain in the match against VOC Rotterdam in Amstelveen.

Singh led from the front after winning the toss, carrying his bat and making 72 not out as VRA were dismissed for 186, young spinner Luke Hartsink unable to bat because he, too, is carrying a hand injury.

The skipper was well supported by Mitch Lees, who made 42 in sixth-wicket stand of 71, while for VOC there were three wickets apiece for returning former international Ahsan Malik and for Ramdas Upadhyaya, at a cost of 23 and 35 respectively.

The Rotterdammers made a creditable fight of their response, with both Tim de Kok (38) and Corey Rutgers (44 not out) giving them some prospect of achieving their first win of the season, but the spin of Hartsink (two for 29) and veteran Adeel Raja (four for 34) proved too effective, and in the end Rutgers was left stranded with the total on 160.

On Saturday Excelsior ’20 Schiedam had secured their first points of the season with a thumping 180-run victory over Dosti-United Amsterdam at Thurlede.

The Schiedammers dominated from the outset, Luuk Kroesen and Roel Verhagen putting on 143 for the first wicket before the former was run out for 48, just short of a maiden Topklasse fifty and Verhagen then went on to a personal best of 85.

Then Kroesen’s eldest brother Joost contributed an unbeaten 60, he and Lorenzo Ingram (43 not out) pushing Excelsior’s total up to an imposing 296 for four.
Dosti never seemed likely to put up a serious challenge, and although Waheed Masood made a defiant 50-ball 56 before becoming one of four victims for keeper Verhagen, falling to the leg spin of Joost Kroesen.

The wickets were shared as Dosti’s innings closed on 116, Umar Baker and the third Kroesen, Gijs, picking up two each, and Luuk taking two for none in four deliveries to finish off what was little short of a Kroesen family triumph.

Rod Lyall 28/07/20

What could have been one of the most attractive fixtures of this shortened season turned out to be a rout, in part because of an accident of the calendar.

The last weekend of July is traditionally cricket-free in the Netherlands, but this year, after a cricket-free May and June, the KNCB was forced to use 26 July as part of its revised competitions schedules.

The result was a number of significant absences of players who had long ago taken advantage of the break in the programme to book holidays, and no side was more adversely affected by this than VRA Amsterdam, who were forced to field six under-18 players for their top-of-the-table clash with HCC at De Diepput.

But that cannot by itself account for VRA’s dramatic collapse to 39 all out, the team’s third-lowest total in half a century, nor does it detract from HCC’s overall superiority, and especially the performance of seamers Hidde Overdijk and Reinier Bijloos, who bowled unchanged through the 15.5 overs of the VRA innings and finished with five for 27 and three for 11 respectively.

In the circumstances the Amsterdammers needed both Ben Cooper and Peter Borren to rise to the occasion, but they were only able to contribute 8 runs between them, and with Shirase Rasool, the only man to reach double figures, run out for 12, HCC faced little real resistance.

Earlier, Damian Crowley had been the sheet-anchor of the home side’s 206 for seven with a solid 62, receiving good support from Overdijk (30) in a fourth-wicket stand of 53, while Clayton Floyd and Yash Patel did well in the closing stages to get their side past the 200 mark in a match reduced to 45 overs a side after heavy overnight rain.

Teenager Ashir Abid gave VRA a good start with two early wickets, and later returned to remove Overdijk and to finish with three for 17.

None of the other four matches suffered an overs reduction, although Punjab Rotterdam’s encounter with Dosti Amsterdam was completed in short order, taking fewer than 51 overs in total.

Having struggled with the bat in their first three games, Dosti began surprisingly well, reaching 84 for one thanks to 45 from skipper Vinoo Tewarie and 28 from keeper Satish Ravichandran, who put on 68 for the second wicket.

Tewarie’s dismissal, however, triggered another collapse, and the Amsterdammers could add only 33 runs for their remaining eight wickets, with Sikander Zulfiqar the main agent of their destruction, taking five for 36.

Suleiman Tariq came back to clean up the tail and finish with four for 30, and Punjab needed just 25 overs to complete another comfortable victory and move to the top of the table, with Saqib Zulfiqar and Teja Nidamanuru steering their side home with an unbroken fifth-wicket partnership of 61.

The highest total and best individual knock of the day came at Craeyenhout, where Sparta 1888 celebrated the switching of their match against HBS to their opponents’ home ground by posting 306 for six, thanks to an unbeaten, 126-ball 120 from skipper Mudassar Bukhari.

Bukhari shared a third-wicket stand of 52 with Lenert van Wyk (47), who was making his first Topklasse appearance for the Capelle club, and one of 101 for the sixth wicket with Manminder Singh (48).

The Sparta captain then struck twice early in the HBS reply, and although his opposite number Tobias Visée responded with a typically-defiant 19-ball 51, once he was stumped by Ali Raza off Faisal Iqbal’s bowling any chance of Sparta’s total coming under serious threat was effectively gone.

Ferdi Vink and Julien de Mey put up some degree of resistance, but both fell to Singh, who finished with four for 18 as HBS were dismissed for 116.

The tensest battle was in a low-scoring battle at Het Loopveld, where VOC Rotterdam almost succeeded in defending their total of 139, only to see ACC pull off a two-wicket victory with three deliveries to spare.

Arnav Jain’s 42 was the highlight of the VOC innings, with smaller contributions from Tim de Kok and stand-in captain Corey Rutgers, Pieter Seelaar being absent through injury.

Ammar Zaidi was the most successful of ACC’s bowlers with four for 29, while there were two wickets apiece for Antony Alangara Napoleon and Devanshu Arya.

ACC, too, lost wickets at regular intervals, and at 68 for six seemed to be heading for defeat. But their innings was rescued by an aggressive 40 from Sahil Kothari, well supported by a painstaking knock from Mees van Vliet.

Still, 22 were still needed when Kothari was bowled by Bobby Hanif, and VOC were still in with a shout when Van Vliet was run out with nine required and 13 deliveries remaining.

Ram Ramesh Babu and Alangara Napoleon were equal to the challenge, however, and were able to secure the points for their side.

Voorburg were able to thank a 133-run partnership for the second wicket between Bas de Leede (68) and Aryan Dutt (64) for their comfortable victory over a young Excelsior ‘20 side at Westvliet.

That stand, coming after Lorenzo Ingram had removed both openers with just 13 on the board, created the platform for a total of 221 for eight, which always seemed likely to be too much for the Schiedammers.

Excelsior began their reply cautiously, but then spinner Dutt started to work his way through their line-up, finishing with four for 38 including the priceless wicket of Ingram, and although Rens van Troost, who had earlier taken three for 37, made a solid 42 the game flowed steadily in Voorburg’s favour.

De Leede came back to finish things off, taking three for 21, and Excelsior were all out for 179 in the 48^th over.

Rod Lyall 20/07/20

There are three unbeaten sides – VRA, Punjab and HCC — after Sunday’s third round of matches in this season’s competition-that-isn’t, while in a table still notable for its symmetry there are also three teams still in search of a win.

In the only game of the day which matched up two previously-unbeaten sides HCC were clear-winners of a hard-fought battle with Voorburg at Westvliet.

The contest turned on a 123-run partnership for HCC’s sixth wicket between Boris Gorlee and Hidde Overdijk, which took them in the space of 26 overs from a fairly perilous 74 for four to a much healthier 197 for five with five overs remaining for a final flourish.

Overdijk was the enterprising of the pair, his 61 coming from 75 deliveries, while Gorlee continued into the final over of the innings before falling to opposing skipper Bas de Leede for a solid 121-ball 81.

There were two wickets apiece for Viv Kingma, Ali Ahmed Qasim and De Leede as HCC sloed on 235 for seven.

Righardt Pieterse and Tom de Grooth began encouragingly for Voorburg, the total reaching 43 before Overdijk secured the breakthrough, and then De Leede and Floris de Lange made a bid to match Gorlee and Overdijk’s contribution by putting on 64 for the fourth wicket.

Then, however, with the total on the dreaded 111, the first of four wickets for Musa Ahmad saw the Voorburg captain depart for 38, followed by three more in the space of six deliveries without addition to the score.

Ahmad himself claimed three in five balls, and with Clayton Floyd removing De Lange for 30 the game w effectively over.

Alyan Razzaqi and Kingma showed a little defiance, but the innings closed on 148, Ahmad finishing with four for 26.

At the Hazelaarweg Punjab’s Stef Myburgh posted the first century of the competition, his 105 not out more than matching Pieter Seelaar’s unbeaten 93 for VOC and guiding his side to a six-wicket victory.

Seelaar’s determined effort stiffened the Bloodhounds’ resolve after Suleiman Tariq had grabbed three early wickets to threaten another VOC collapse, and a half-century stand with Arnav Jain (21) and then one of 97 with Corey Rutgers (43) enabled them to reach 197 for six.

Much as that was an improved effort by VOC it seemed unlikely to trouble Punjab’s powerful batting line-up, and Myburgh got them off to a flying start by plundering two fours and a six off Jain’s opening over.

He received valuable support from brothers Rehmat, Asad and Saqib Zulfiqar and from Yasir Usman, but it was Myburgh who dominated the innings against a fairly pedestrian VOC attack further hindered by the absence of Seelaar, and Punjab cruised to victory with almost twelve overs to spare.

The defeat of last year’s champions, Excelsior ’20 Schiedam, by VRA Amsterdam at Thurlede was, if anything, even more convincing.

Put in to bat by Excelsior captain-for-the-day Joost Kroesen, VRA made 244 before they were dismissed in the last of their overs, the engine-room of the returning Eric Szwarczynski, Ben Cooper and Peter Borren, with a total of 630 top-flight games between them, exacting a heavy toll upon Excelsior’s young and experienced attack.

Szwarczynski showed that he is still one of the finest batsmen in the competition with a composed 61 in his first knock of the season, while Cooper contributed 49 and Borren 50, while it was Sohail Bhatti, also playing for the first time this year, who was the most successful of the Excelsior bowlers with three for 45.

The Schiedammers were on the back foot from the moment Borren and keeper Szwarczynski combined to remove young Luuk Kroesen with the first ball of their reply, and while Roel Verhagen and Joost Kroesen added 49 for the second wicket, each making 24, their departures signalled a disappointing effort by the depleted champions.

Quirijn Gunning struck the decisive blow, removing danger-man Lorenzo Ingram, and he then worked his way through the middle and lower order, taking four for 31 and probably deserving more.

Borren and Adeel Raja each collected a brace, and Excelsior were ultimately dismissed for 95 in just 28.1 overs, giving VRA a 149-run victory and taking them to the top of the table on net run rate.

The quickest result of the day came at Craeyenhout, where home side HBS made short work of their game against trouble-plagued Dosti United.

Mahesh Hans, another stand-in skipper in the absence of Vinoo Tewarie, elected to bat first, but his side were soon on the way to another disappointing total.

Their 84 was something of an improvement on their previous efforts, but they had little chance of holding an HBS side in which, as it turned out, Tobias Visée was in his most rampant mood.

It was Wessel Coster who was the main destroyer of the Dosti innings, taking five for 26, while Benno Boddendijk played his part by taking three catches to claim the first three wickets by the time the total reached 20; only Touseef Ahmed showed any real resistance, making 23.

Then Visée took over, his 67 coming from just 24 deliveries and including six fours and five sixes, two of them so massive that the balls were irretrievable.

He perished just before the end, caught behind off Ahmed, but Coster and Reece Mason completed the nine-wicket victory in just 9.1 overs.

ACC’s defeat of Sparta 1888 at Het Loopveld began in dramatic fashion, 16-year-old seamer Mees van Vliet bowling Sawan Sardha and Faisal Iqbal with the first two deliveries of the match.

He went on to claim two more wickets and finish with four for 39, and with Charles McInerney taking four for 26 and Antony Alangara Napoleon two for 6 Sparta could only manage 101; opener Prithviraj Balwantsingh top-scored with 29.

Iqbal struck back when ACC replied, removing McInerney with the third ball he faced, but 35 from Clayton Burnett and smaller contributions from Jamieson Mulready and Anis Raza were enough to give the home side a comfortable five-wicket win.

Max Hoornweg put them under as much pressure as he could with the scalps of all three of the principal scorers, but in the end the Sparta total was too small to be defended, and ACC won with more than 20 overs to spare.

Rod Lyall 13/07/20

Time was that it was not uncommon in Dutch cricket for all four innings of a two-innings match to be completed in a single day, no side making much over 50 and all 40 wickets falling in the space of eighty or so overs.

Then a number of things happened: pitches and batting techniques improved, and eventually two-innings cricket was replaced by the one-day game. Even more significant, from the late 1970s onward clubs were permitted an overseas player, euphemistically known as the ‘coach’ but more frequently a hired gun who did little or no coaching but did the job they were employed for, winning matches with bat and/or ball.

Suddenly this season, the impact of coronavirus has driven overseas players largely – though not, as we shall see, entirely – from the scene, and we can more clearly see what the past forty years have achieved in the progress of Dutch domestic cricket.

And even when you take the lack of practice into account, you have to say it’s not an unrelievedly pretty sight.

Two matches on Sunday bore a distressing resemblance to the two halves of one of those long-ago games in what used to be called the Eerste Klas: across the two, 33 wickets fell in 81.5 overs, a total of 224 runs were scored, and the best individual effort was 22, only eight of the 38 batsmen reaching double figures.

At the Bermweg in Capelle a/d IJssel Sparta 1888 skittled ten-man VOC Rotterdam for just 46, and then knocked off the runs for the loss of three wickets in 7.2 overs.

It was a dispiriting performance by VOC, their two most experienced batsmen in skipper Pieter Seelaar and Jelte Schoonheim contributing one run between them, and once Sparta had gained the initial breakthrough they never took their foot off the pedal, Joost Martijn Snoep claiming three for 7, Nasratullah Ibrahimkil three for 5 and Manminder Singh two for 1.

Ramdas Upadhyaya and Arnav Jain showed the only real resistance, doubling the score in a dogged fifth-wicket partnership of 24, but for the most part the hallmark of the innings was tame surrender.

Sparta rubbed it in by dismissing the VOC bowling with near-contempt, although youngster Tiso Moorman picked up two wickets and Schoonheim one.

Dosti United collapsed for the second week in succession, this time against HCC at De Diepput, but this time they did so chasing, and chasing a modest target after their new South African, Touseef Ahmed, one of the handful of overseas players in the competition this year, had claimed six for 26 and confined the home side to a meagre 80.

But Dosti were soon reduced to 8 for four in reply, and only a belligerent 22 from Wahid Masood and an unbeaten 11 from Ahmed, batting at No. 10, enabled them get up to 50.

HCC needed only three bowlers, Hidde Overdijk taking three for 24 and Olivier Klaus four for 15 in an innings which lasted just 21 overs.

Elsewhere, the cricket bore a closer resemblance to what we have become used to.

VRA Amsterdam posted the highest total of the day, making 276 for eight against HBS Craeyenhout in the Amsterdamse Bos.

Highlight of the innings was opener Vikram Singh’s knock of 99, run out in the final over going for a second run which would have given him his second Topklasse century.

Singh was given good support, first by Ben Cooper with an aggressive 35-ball 48, then by Leon Turmaine, who made 36, and finally by Debrub Dasgupta, whose 39 hammered home VRA’s advantage.

HBS never seemed likely to mount a threatening challenge, especially after Quirijn Gunning had removed skipper Tobias Visée for 11, and although Navjit Singh and Adil Ahmed showed some resistance in the middle order they were eventually dismissed for 193 in the last of their 50 overs, still 83 runs short of VRA’s total.

Turmaine was the most successful of the home side’s bowlers with four for 40.

The most absorbing of the matches was at Westvliet, where ACC, recovering from 55 for five to set Voorburg a reasonable target of 197, gave the home side a scare in the middle overs before going down to a four-wicket defeat.

That they were able to put Voorburg under any pressure at all was due to a patient sixth-wicket stand of 84 between Ram Ramesh Babu (56) and 17-year-old Shreyas Potdar, who went on to post his maiden Topklasse half-century and ended unbeaten on 62.

Pick of the Voorburg attack was Stef Mulder with career-best figures of five for 33.

The Villagers appeared to be cruising to victory when Rigchardt Pieterse (31) and Bas de Leede (56) put on 95 for the first wicket in just 16 overs, but then they lost five wickets for 12 runs in eight overs, Anis Raza and Sahil Kothari claiming two apiece, and it seemed as if ACC might again haul themselves back into the game.

Philippe Boissevain had other ideas, however, and in company first with Floris de Lange and then with Viv Kingma he steered his side to victory, making a 57-ball 65 not out and getting Voorburg home with more than six overs to spare.

Excelsior ’20 Schiedam won the title last year by defending low totals, but even 186 proved insufficient t the Zomercomplex as Punjab Rotterdam took just 34.4 overs to cruise to a five-wicket win.

Lorenzo Ingram was, as so often in the past, the mainstay of the Excelsior innings, making exactly 50, but once he had gone the Schiedammers, fielding two teenage debutants, were unable to build on that foundation.

Mubashar Hussain claimed three early wickets at a cost of 25, and then Suleiman Tariq again returned to finish off the tail and end with three for 28.

Stef Myburgh got the Punjab reply off to it accustomed hectic start, belting 34 off 24 deliveries, but Rehmat Zulfiqar held things together even when Niels Etman chipped in with three wickets, removing brothers Asad and Saqib, and eventually Rehmat himself for a well-made 53.

But by that time Punjab’s Indian-born New Zealander Anil Nidamanuru had settled in, and his 41-ball 56 not out, including two fours and five sixes, ensured that his side, like VRA, HCC, Voorburg, and now Sparta, retained their 100% record.

Rod Lyall & Bertus de Jong 10/07/20

Unsurprisingly, there were plenty of signs of rust when the Topklasse got under way last Sunday – the inclement weather may have contributed to that as much as the long, largely practice-free lay-off – but there were also some encouraging signs that, despite the absence of clear goals and menaces in this foreshortened season we may be in for some good, entertaining cricket.

RL: VRA Amsterdam, finding themselves with an unscheduled home start to their campaign and having celebrated with a comprehensive demolition of Dosti, will entertain HBS Craeyenhout in the Bos this week. The Crows found promoted side Punjab Rotterdam at full throttle last Sunday, and despite some solid resistance from new recruit Tim Drummond and some determined bowling from seamers Ferdi Vink and Najvit Singh they were unable to recover from a disastrous early batting collapse. VRA’s attack, even without Quirijn Gunning, was too much for Dosti, and they will be keen to demonstrate that that effort wasn’t a flash in the pan. HBS’s best hope might be to put the home side’s untested batting under early pressure, but that would need Tobias Visée to start by calling correctly.

BdJ: The Amsterdammers may have been forced by circumstance to blood a bevy of youth players earlier than planned, but Peter Borren’s confidence in his young charges seems to be well founded. While the batting indeed remains somewhat untested this season, the presence of Borren himself as well as Dutch internationals Vikram Singh and Ben Cooper, who were not required to bat last week, means it’s unlikely that the batting will be VRA’s chief concern, especially with HBS missing their top three wicket-takers from last season in Farshad Khan, Zac Gibson and Berend Westdijk. Visée and Drummond may be looking forward to getting stuck into a gifted but rusty or raw VRA attack, but it will likely require a serious score from one or the other to put VRA under real pressure.

RL: Having dominated HBS almost from start to finish, Punjab will take on last year’s champions Excelsior ‘20 at the Zomercomplex. Excelsior, of course, missed their match last week because their Thurlede pitch was unplayable, and have therefore not had a chance to settle before facing a buoyant Punjab side which has been reinforced by a full quartet of Zulfiqars. The Schiedammers do have Lorenzo Ingram, but they are without opener Tim Etman, who moved to Australia at the end of last season, and with just the one overseas player in the side will have a different balance from that which has seen them claim three titles in four years.

BdJ: If VRA are fortunate to be able to fall back on their youth in this unusual season, Punjab’s acquisition of the full set of Zulfiqars gives them still greater depth, and could not have been more timely. Though missing their intended overseas players this season, Steph Myburgh demonstrated that he remains a menace at the top of the order, and backed up by a quartet of Zulfiqars the Punjab batting looks a sound as any in the league this year. Despite skipper Tariq hitting the ground running with ball in hand, however, the bowling attack is as yet unproven and Excelsior are unlikely to prove as cooperative as HBS were last week, at least in terms of run-outs. Probably the toughest game to call this week, but with Ingram in the side it’s never safe to bet against the title-holders.

RL: The other unknown quantity is Sparta 1888, whose journey to Thurlede last Sunday was in vain. So their first outing, at the Bermweg, will be against VOC Rotterdam, who showed their lack of practice against Voorburg in their opening game. The main exception was Ayaz Durrani, who responded admirably to the increased responsibility of opening the innings, but VOC will need the top and middle order to weigh in more effectively if there are to set their opponents reasonable challenging targets. Sparta do, of course, have a proven match-winner in former international allrounder and new skipper Mudassar Bukhari, and will looking to their new acquisition Lenert van Wyk to anchor a batting line-up which was pretty brittle last year.

BdJ: With Sparta yet to bowl a ball in anger this season it’s hard to know what to expect when they take the field on Sunday, but on paper they look in decent enough shape. Among returning players, Bukhari was without question the MVP of the 2019 Topklasse, and if he can replicate that form this summer then Sparta will be serious title contenders (or would be if there was a title). VOC, conversely, are a long way off fielding a first choice eleven and the eleven they did field last week still underperformed. It will take a remarkable turnaround from Pieter Seelaar’s side if they are to put points on the board this Sunday.

RL: Voorburg looked impressive in their win over VOC, and in Viv Kingma, Ahmed Ali Qasim, Bas de Leede and Stef Mulder they arguably have the sharpest seam attack in the competition, even after the departure of Brandon Glover. They are at home to ACC this Sunday, and despite the initial success of their new opening pairing of Cameron Burnett and Charles McInerney the Amsterdammers seem likely to find it tough to recover from the loss of three Zulfiqar brothers and Shirase Rasool. There may be more questions about Voorburg’s batting than their bowling, and they needed a captain’s innings from Tom de Grooth to see off VOC. But Righardt Pieterse demonstrated that he can be a useful opening partner for his skipper, and with De Leede also in the top order and a clutch of other promising youngsters this could be a valuable team-building season for the Villagers.

BdJ: With the absence of the Smit brothers and Clayton Floyd’s departure, VCC certainly do have a rather longer tail this season than they’d like, but it’s questionable whether that will prove a problem against ACC’s attack. The arrival of Burnett and McInerney, at least on first showing, promises to alleviate the batting concerns somewhat, but ACC will need someone to step up on Sunday to do the same with the ball if they hope to take two points back from Westvliet.

RL: There may be no title at stake this year, but HCC did enough in beating ACC last Sunday that if there were they would be serious contenders. Admittedly, their attack had to labour for nearly 25 overs before claiming their first wicket, but once they had the breakthrough they never looked back. They are a well-balanced bowling outfit, all the more effective for the arrival of Damien Crowley, and his unbeaten 74 showed that he, like opener Musa Ahmad, is a great acquisition. It will take a huge effort for Dosti Amsterdam to recover from last week’s debacle on their visit to De Diepput, although skipper Vinoo Tewarie has some talented local players at his disposal and will give a better account of themselves second time around.

BdJ: Though Burnett and McInerney’s opening stand on Sunday does raise some questions about the effectiveness of HCC’s seam attack without Qasim and Street, nothing about Dosti’s display at the Bos lost week suggested a team equipped to take advantage. The absence of Taruwar Kohli , Mohammad Hafeez and Anees Davids was keenly felt, and now also lacking Rahil Ahmed, Dosti’s batting looks threadbare indeed. Mashesh Hans and skipper Vinoo Tewarie will need to provide contributions commensurate with their senior roles in the side if they are to compete against an HCC side that looks scarcely weaker than the one that challenged for the title last year.

Rod Lyall’s tips: VRA, Punjab, Sparta, Voorburg, HCC.

Bertus de Jong’s tips: VRA, EXcelsior, Sparta, Voorburg, HCC.

Rod Lyall 06/07/20

Global pandemics may come and go, but the Dutch climate is eternal. So it did not come as a surprise that the weather at the weekend rained on the KNCB’s parade, causing one Topklasse match to be abandoned without a ball being bowled, another to be reduced to 33 overs a side, and two more to start an hour late.

Ironically, or perhaps logically, the only game to escape unscathed was the one at Hazelaarweg, which had already been cut to 40 overs a side by agreement between the captains because VOC Rotterdam were unable to raise a team for an 11 o’clock start.

The Rotterdam club, national champions two years ago and reigning Twenty20 Cup-winners, have already had to pull their second team out of the competition because of declining player numbers, and were one of a small minority of clubs who preferred a T20 format to 50-over cricket. Even so, it was a further sign that all is not well with one of Dutch cricket’s proudest clubs.

The first day of top-division cricket saw several newcomers thrive, not least 14-year-old Luke Hartsink, whose three wickets for 19 runs from seven overs helped VRA Amsterdam reduce a makeshift Dosti side to 55 all out.

His partner in crime was former international Adeel Raja, 25 years his senior and a veteran of 250 matches, who returned the remarkable figures of 6 – 3 – 6 – 4.  Only two Dosti batsmen reached double figures, and despite losing a wicket off the opening delivery of their reply VRA needed just seven overs to complete an eight-wicket victory, Shirase Rasool making 27 not out on his first outing with his new club.

Also in a hurry to claim the points were newly-promoted Punjab Rotterdam, who needed only 21.1 overs to overhaul HBS Craeyenhout’s disappointing total of 126.

It could have been a good deal worse but for a knock of 49 from South African Tim Drummond, who in his first Topklasse match helped his side recover from 45 for six in partnerships with Ferdi and Steven Vink before he became the third HBS batsman to succumb to a run out.

Skipper Sulaiman Tariq took three for 24 for Punjab, and when his side began their chase Stef Myburgh raced to a 36-ball 51 and shared a brisk 74-run opening stand with Rehmat Zulfiqar, the eldest of the four brothers who are now reunited in the Rotterdammers’ gold and green.

Navjit Singh and Ferdi Vink picked up two wickets apiece as Punjab briefly faltered, but Sikander Zulfiqar ensured that they marked their return to the top flight with a comfortable win.

Newcomers made significant contributions on both sides of the encounter between ACC and HCC at Het Loopveld, which resulted in a six-wicket victory for the visiting Leeuwen.

Fielding only five players who turned out for the Amsterdam club last season, ACC got off to a promising start after being put in to bat, their new opening pairing of New Zealander Cameron Burnett and Charles McInerney sharing in a stand of 89 before Italian international Damien Crowley, on his first Topklasse appearance, had Burnett caught behind for 53.

Clayton Floyd, a transfer over the winter from Voorburg, then accounted for McInerney for 35 with the total on 109, and the remaining ACC batsmen were able to muster only another 57, seasoned campaigner Olivier Klaus collecting four for 37 and Floyd three for 30 as the home side collapsed to 166 all out.

HCC’s reply was built on a promising knock of 42 from opener Musa Ahmed, who has joined the Diepput club from Hoofdklasse side Groen en Wit, and an unbeaten run-a-ball 74 from Crowley, whose experience ensured that there would be no corresponding collapse by the Hagenaars.

The closest match of the round was that delayed, reduced-overs encounter between VOC Rotterdam and Voorburg, with Voorburg skipper Tom de Grooth posting the highest score of the day with a splendidly controlled 87 not out as his side chased down VOC’s 152 all out.

The VOC total owed much to 56 by Ayaz Durrani, promoted to open the innings, whose maiden Topklasse fifty was a combination of patient defence and some powerful aggression against the spinners, international Philippe Boissevain going for three lusty straight sixes.

But he received little support apart from a solid innings from Arnav Jain and a spirited one towards the end from Corey Rutgers – who arguably would be better placed somewhat higher up the order – while there were three wickets apiece for Voorburg’s international pacemen Viv Kingma and Bas de Leede.

The VOC total never seemed likely to be enough, and although there was a mid-order stumble from Voorburg, who went from 123 for two to 145 for six, as Jain, Pieter Seelaar and Jelte Schoonheim collected a brace of wickets apiece, De Grooth’s composure ensured that they got home with ten deliveries to spare.

The greatest disappointment of the day was for Excelsior ’20 and Sparta 1888, who arrived at Thurlede for the first match of the Schiedam club’s centenary season to discover that the covers had blown off overnight and the square was unplayable. Dutch weather can never be taken lightly.

Rod Lyall 17/02/20

Although there were suggestions a few weeks ago that the Topklasse might be in for a radical overhaul, in the end wiser counsels appear to have prevailed – for now, at least – and the 2020 season will be for most part closely resemble its immediate predecessors.

The schedule released by the KNCB last week provides for an 18-round round robin among ten teams, with no play-offs or finals.

The only differences from last season (apart from the obvious one that Quick Haag will be playing in the Hoofdklasse and will be replaced by Hoofdklasse champions Punjab Rotterdam) are comparatively minor: for the first time in many years there will not be a full Topklasse round on Pentecost Monday, although Dosti Amsterdam will be at home to Voorburg on that day.

The other innovation is that there will be a game between VOC Rotterdam and HBS Craeyenhout on Liberation Day, Tuesday, 5 May, an arrangement necessitated by the fact that both clubs will be engaged in the European Cricket League at La Manga on 6 June, the day their Topklasse fixture would otherwise have been in the programme.

As usual, top division matches will generally be played on Saturdays for the first seven weeks of the season, allowing youth competitions to run on Sundays until the schools break up for the summer holidays, and will then move to Sundays from 21 June.

No allowance has been made for the Dutch national side’s commitments from mid-June until the second week of July: three rounds of Topklasse matches are scheduled to be played during that period.

The competition will kick off on 2 May, with champions Excelsior ’20 at home to Voorburg, while VRA Amsterdam will entertain HCC, Dosti Amsterdam will play promoted Punjab, HBS Craeyenhout will take on Sparta 1888, and VOC will play ACC.

The transfer market appears to have been unusually busy over the winter, and with new overseas signings and a few retirements it will be as difficult as ever to predict the sides’ strengths and weaknesses.

That, however, is a matter to which we shall return in due course.