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Rod Lyall 25/07/19

Whatever you think about the current competition structure – and I have reservations about several aspects of it – you have to admit that this season’s Topklasse is providing the most enthralling battle at both ends of the table that we have seen for some time.

At least three sides are still in with a real chance of winning the championship, while in the lower reaches, although there are two main candidates for relegation, there are a further three who still need at least one more win to ensure that they will be playing Topklasse cricket next year.

The equations are, of course, complicated by the fact that teams have played differing numbers of games, and that the table is therefore determined by average rather than absolute points.

So Excelsior ’20 may currently be three points ahead of their nearest rivals, but since they have played one match more than HCC it’s the difference in the average points (0.12) which is the true margin.

This makes it correspondingly more difficult to calculate how much the leaders will need to do in order to be sure of taking the title, especially since in a summer like this one there’s no guarantee that more matches won’t be lost to the weather.

What we can say, however, is that if Excelsior win all four of their remaining games, they will finish with a points average of 1.71, while the best HCC can do is 1.63.

If Excelsior were to lose just one match, though, they would finish on 1.59 – and that makes the clash between the Schiedammers and HCC at De Diepput on 4 August one of the many four-pointers which are scattered through the coming weeks’ programme.

By the same token, HCC’s away match against ACC the following week is likely to be crucial as well: by winning all four of their remaining games ACC could finish on 1.53, just ahead of HCC even if they won their other three matches, but then they would need Excelsior to have lost two games if they were to become champions.

HBS Craeyenhout, despite their recent defeats, are not mathematically out of the race, but the odds are decidedly not in their favour: not only would they need to win all their remaining matches, including victories over Excelsior (11 August) and ACC (18 August), but they would need Excelsior to lose two further games, and HCC also to lose twice.

At the other end of the table, VRA Amsterdam’s four wins on the trot before their defeat by Dosti United on Sunday have thrown the relegation battle wide open, with just two wins separating current wooden-spooners Quick Haag from Voorburg, in sixth place.

The average points gap is greater than that would suggest, at 0.40, but there are so many matches between the lower sides scheduled for the run in that one is very quickly overwhelmed by possible scenarios.

To take Quick first: of their four games still to play, two are against the sides immediately above them in the table, VRA (11 August) and Sparta 1888 (18 August).

Both are therefore of huge significance if Quick are to escape the drop to the Hoofdklasse.

Sparta 1888 will also meet two of their closest rivals: VRA (4 August) and Quick (18 August), with the latter game perhaps being the one which finally decides which team is relegated.

For those immediately above Quick and Sparta, there is the comfort of knowing that it would now take a marked reversal of form by both of those teams to bring their own status into question.

Just one more win by Voorburg, VOC or VRA would mean that Sparta would have to win three out of four to have any chance of overtaking them, and since both VOC and VRA are due to play the Capelle side they do to a great extent have the outcome in their own hands.

For Quick Haag it’s an ever bigger ask: as well as Sparta, they still have to play Dosti, VRA and VOC, and even three wins would probably only bring them level on points with their rivals, and with a worse points average.

The truth is that it would take an extraordinary combination of events for anyone other than either Sparta or Quick to be relegated, and that their encounter on 18 August will likely be the four-pointer to end all four-pointers.

One thing is certain: we’re in for a more interesting (and for some nerve-wracking) August than many recent seasons have provided.

Bertus de Jong & Rod Lyall 04/07/19

There’s still a good way to go in this year’s Topklasse, but already the field has split quite markedly into title contenders and relegation candidates, with four teams all within two points of the top spot, and the remaining six sides a full six points adrift. heading into round 12 there’s still time for some of the latter to stage a late surge, but they’ll likely have to make a start this Sunday.

BdJ: of the trailing teams, VOC Rotterdam are best placed to mount a comeback, last season’s champions four wins shy of ACC and Excelsior at the top of the table, but with a game against bottom-placed VRA still in hand. They travel to Nieuw Hanenburg to take on second-from-bottom Quick Haag on Sunday, boasting three key players all in excellent touch. Max O’Dowd, Scott Edwards and Pieter Seelaar are all in fine form for the national side and VOC both, and against a fairly pedestrian Quick attack will be banking on big scores from their three internationals. They will likely need all three to fire though; even if Quick’s key man Jay Bista has gone uncharacteristically cheaply in his past couple of outings there will be little to worry him or his team-mates in this VOC bowling attack, which has been more varied than effective of late, using a total of 12 different bowlers and conceding over 600 runs across their last two games.

RL: With O’Dowd and Edwards averaging over 40 with the bat and Seelaar a tad over 30, the Rotterdam Three are keeping their side even slightly in the hunt: the rest of the top seven have made barely 500 runs between them, in 39 innings. Pierce Fletcher and Ashiqullah Said apart, the bowling has also looked threadbare, although the return of Bobby Hanif has given Seelaar another experienced seamer. They will face Bista’s aggression and Geert Maarten Mol’s solidity, but the rest of Quick’s batsmen have given these two even more intermittent support than VOC have mustered for their three internationals. If Bista comes off the Rotterdammers could be looking at another day of leather-chasing on Nieuw Hanenburg’s unforgiving artificial surface; if they can get him early, they should take two very important points back home with them.

BdJ: The most recent team to profit from VOC’s woes with the ball were VRA, who racked up 290-5 last weekend thanks in large part to former skipper Emile van den Burg’s second Topklasse century. The subsequent win, only VRA’s second so far, saw them close the gap with the rest of the pack, but the manner of it rather highlighted why they are at the bottom of the pile in the first place. The bowling will again be VRA’s chief concern when they welcome HCC to the Bos, part-timer Ben Cooper’s place at the top of the VRA wicket-taking table as much a testament to the travails of their front line bowlers as Cooper’s admittedly much-improved off-spin. HCC will arrive in Amstelveen having not lost a match in over a month, with Street and Wiffen both looking solid, Overdijk and Staal returning from national duty in England and favourites to claim the two points they need to keep pace with ACC and Excelsior at the top.

RL: What has been particularly impressive about HCC’s winning run has been the solidity of both their batting and bowling, with Bryce Street playing a key role in both – although it must be conceded that their record might have been tested had their match against co-leaders ACC not been rained off. Still, they will arrive at the Kalfjeslaan full of confidence, and keen to prevent the home side from starting a much-needed winning run of their own. VRA’s defeat of VOC last week will have given them heart, although as m’colleague points out, the bowling is still a source of concern. The Bos can be a bowlers’ graveyard after a prolonged dry spell, and if the weather holds conditions may well favour the batsmen. In which case HCC seem better equipped to contain a potentially powerful VRA batting line-up than the reverse.

BdJ: Currently in pole position thanks to a solid net run rate advantage over Excelsior, ACC head down to Westvliet to take on the beleaguered Voorburg CC whose much-anticipated return to the Topklasse hasn’t quite lived up to expectations. Despite having the look of a well-balanced side, new-ball pair Kingma and Glover still the envy of the league, Clayton Floyd quietly outperforming either and the Smit brothers bolstering the batting, VCC have yet to play to their collective ability. ACC’s performance, conversely, has outstripped even their most optimistic fans’ expectations. On paper 7th placed VCC are far from outmatched, yet they will have to step up their efforts if they are to derail ACC’s title bid.

RL: Dismissed for the fourth time under 150 last Sunday, Voorburg continue to belie the promising start their theoretically powerful batting line-up made on the first day of the season. Nic Smit has added a good deal to their batting, but paradoxically the rest – even his brother Matt – have been even less impressive than they were before his arrival. The combination of irresponsible batting, wayward bowling and indifferent catching was fatal against Excelsior, and meeting the two co-leaders in successive weeks is a tough ask. ACC, on the other hand, just keep winning, with Brady Barends’ pace and Saqib Zulfiqar’s spin accounting for most of the wickets – 24 and 20 respectively – and runs coming from just about everyone at some stage or other. There is no doubt that Voorburg have the capability to pull off a shock here, but whether they can marshal the will to do so is another question.

BdJ: Close on ACC’s heels, separated only by NRR, are Excelsior ’20 Schiedam who have consistently found ways to keep winning despite never quite recapturing the magic of seasons past. Whilst Lorenzo Ingram and Brenton Parchment were responsible for much of the early success, Excelsior have looked rather less like a two-man show of late. Last week’s win over VCC was much more of a team effort, skipper Tom Heggelman, who is quietly having a solid season, leading the way with the ball whilst Tim Etman and Joost Kroesen stepped up with the bat. They take on Sparta 1888 at Bermweg on Sunday, who have had a much tougher time of it in recent weeks despite the all-round efforts of veteran Mudassar Bukhari and overseas player Garnett Tarr’s recent purple patch. Sparta have looked competitive enough all season despite carrying two misfiring overseas for much of it, and there are signs that Andrew Fletcher may be beginning to belatedly acclimatise to Dutch conditions. Sparta will hope he emulates his junior colleague with a sudden flourish of runs come Sunday, but on current form the visitors look odds on to take the two points.

RL: The last time Excelsior went to Bermweg on Topklasse business they were shot out for 41, an experience which will no doubt be in both teams’ minds this Sunday. Dost Muhammed, the destroyer-in-chief that day, has played only once this season, but Sparta’s four-man seam attack has performed well enough without him. They may lack the incisiveness of Voorburg’s, against whom Excelsior toiled somewhat last week, but if the Schiedammers’ bowlers perform as well as they did against Voorburg they should be capable of defending any reasonable total. That said, Sparta’s batsmen gave HBS a real scare last Sunday when chasing a big total, and while the Bermweg is a lot less batsman-friendly than Craeyenhout, the signs that Fletcher is finally adjusting to Dutch conditions could be ominous.

BdJ: Arithmetically in the top half of the table in fifth, Dosti-United will nonetheless be more concerned about putting distance between themselves and the relegation fight as catching up to the top four when they take on fourth-placed HBS at Drieburg on Sunday. The Crows’ tilt at the title has faltered somewhat in recent weeks with losses to HCC and VOC, though back at full strength they comfortably saw off Sparta again last week. Though it’s fair to say they have Dosti rather outgunned in terms of batting, especially as Taruwar Kohli is having a comparatively quiet season so far (by his standards at least), Dosti have shown themselves quite capable of racking up serious scores themselves. Most of the Dosti top six have produced scores on occasion, but none have done so consistently. HBS have been more consistent in their scoring, but arguably also more dependent on it; despite Berend Westdijk’s excellent season with the ball the rest of the attack has looked comparatively innocuous. It may come down to how well the HBS line-up negotiate the home side’s spin attack: if Dosti can contain them effectively they’ll have every chance of springing an upset.

RL: While I do not dissent from m’colleague’s view of this match, I don’t agree about the HBS attack: of the pace men, Wessel Coster, Farshad Khan and Zak Gibson have all bowled pretty well, and there has been a marked improvement in Julian de Mey’s contribution to the spin department. They did suffer at the hands of Sparta last week before pulling off an important win, and coach Rainer Carsten will be looking to them to be at their best against a rather enigmatic but undoubtedly menacing Dosti batting line-up. On the other side of the equation, the return of Kuldeep Diwan adds another dimension to the home side’s attack, and the battle between Dosti’s bowlers and the HBS top order could be one of the highlights of the season. The game at Craeyenhout certainly offered much to savour, and the return is likely to be no different. Perhaps the toughest game of the five to pick . . .

Bertus de Jong’s tips: VOC, HCC, ACC, Excelsior, HBS
Rod Lyall’s tips: VOC, HCC, ACC, Excelsior, HBS

Rod Lyall 25/06/19

A rather peculiar atmosphere hung over Dutch cricket grounds on Sunday, as clubs experienced very different fortunes arising from the conjunction of the first T20 International against Zimbabwe and a normal Topklasse programme.

In the end, the absences of national team players may have had a decisive influence only at De Diepput where, with Tobias Visée and Wesley Barresi, HBS Craeyenhout could only manage 178 for nine in their 50 overs, a total HCC passed for the loss of six wickets.

But then, a full-strength HBS had been bowled out for less by Voorburg earlier in the season, and HCC’s attack has been a key factor in taking them to third place on the table.

This time Bryce Street struck a crucial blow when he had Sharn Gomes caught behind off the first ball he received, having just removed HBS top-scorer Navjit Singh for 39.

Opener Zac Elkin made 34 and replacement wicketkeeper Rainer Karsten 37, but with three run outs HBS contributed to their own problems, while Street finished with three for 34 for HCC.

HBS struck back when HCC replied, removing Bharat Itagi and Tonny Staal by the time 11 runs were on the board, but Street anchored the innings expertly, and with smaller contributions from the remainder of the top and middle order he was able to guide his side to victory at the start of the 35^th over, remaining not out on 87.

At Sportpark Drieburg VOC Rotterdam, one of the clubs worst affected by the demands of international duty, slumped to a massive 217-run defeat by Dosti United, but in truth, while the loss of Max O’Dowd, Scott Edwards and Pieter Seelaar no doubt affected the winning margin, the die was cast by a superb batting performance from the Dosti top order.

It was a partnership of 180 between Abhinav Bali and Taruwar Kohli, setting a new club record for the second wicket, which established the home side’s dominance after Vinoo Tewarie had won the toss and elected to take advantage of ideal conditions for batting.

Bali dominated the bowling from the outset and with Kohli playing a supporting role he made 135 of the first 195 runs, facing 118 balls and hitting 16 fours and five sixes.

After Bali’s departure Kohli went on to make a more restrained 75, and then Rahil Ahmed and Anees Davids added a rapid 53 in an unbroken fifth-wicket stand which took the total to 313, Ahmed finishing with 35 and Davids 20.

Faced with such a huge total the VOC batting crumbled against the pace of Davids and Waheed Masood and the left-arm spin of Asief Hoseinbaks, and it was only a defiant 41-ball innings of 42 from Pierce Fletcher, who hit five sixes, which enabled them to reach 96.

Davids finished with three for 17, while Hoseinbaks, Masood and Mahesh Hans claimed two apiece.

Faced with the absence not only of captain Saqib Zulfiqar but of three other regular members of the side who had opted for a trip to the World Cup, ACC were nevertheless untroubled in beating local rivals VRA Amsterdam, who were without Ben Cooper.

They started with a century stand between Jean Marais and the youthful Jamieson Mulready, promoted to open in the absence of Rehmat Zulfiqar, and after Mulready was dismissed for 35 Marais went on to a maiden Topklasse century, making 102 before he was trapped in front by Leon Turmaine.

With Brady Barends contributing a brisk 32 in the closing stages ACC ended on 231 for five, with two wickets each for Turmaine and fellow spinner Pragam Rathore.

VRA could only manage 149 in reply, the only substantial contributions coming from Emile van den Burg (38) and Eric Szwarczynski (44), while Anis Raza was ACC’s main wicket-taker with three for 25.

Excelsior ‘20 kept pace with ACC with a 60-run victory over Quick Haag at Nieuw Hanenburg.

The foundation of their total of 246 for eight was a 159-run second-wicket stand between Tom Heggelman, taking on an opening role in the absence of Roel Verhagen, and Lorenzo Ingram. Ingram made an excellent 87 before being caught behind off Pieter Groenewald, while Heggelman made 69 before he was run out.

Geert Maarten Mol then ran through Excelsior’s vulnerable middle order, taking three for 56, as the visitors struggled to take full advantage of the platform Heggelman and Ingram had created.

That total, however, proved to be enough, as Quick’s reply never really fired once the talismanic Jay Bista had been caught and bowled by Sohail Bhatti after making a 20-ball 27.

With Rens van Troost claiming his best figures of the summer with three for 31 and the rest of the attack all chipping in, Quick were dismissed for 186, Jeroen Brand – batting at nine – the top-scorer with 28.

The closest match of the day was at Sportpark Bermweg, where Voorburg overcame the absence of Viv Kingma and Brendan Glover to beat Sparta 1888 by 17 runs.

Voorburg’s total of 234 for eight was a real team effort, with most of the batsmen getting a start but no-one going beyond skipper Tom de Grooth’s 44.

Lesser contributions came from Nehaan Gigani (32), Clayton Floyd (35) and Philippe Boissevain (30), while for Sparta Usman Saleem took three for 37.

Sparta were well placed at one stage, Ali Raza (67) and Garnett Tarr (57) putting together a second-wicket partnership of 122, but after they had gone it was left to Andrew Fletcher, playing his first substantial innings of the season, to hold the lower order together.

He managed to get his side as far as 217 but then, running out of partners, he was dismissed by Stef Mulder for 44, and the innings ended without addition to the score.

Mulder finished with three for 45 and Floyd with three for 46.

The day’s events left ACC and Excelsior one win clear of HCC, who have played one game fewer, while at the other end of the table VRA remain two wins adrift of Quick Haag and Sparta, but with a rescheduled match against VOC still to play.