News

And so we reach the sharp end, with four teams chasing the title, not only in the Topklasse, but in the Hoofdklasse and Eerste Klasse as well. The winner of the Hoofdklasse will, of course, be playing in the Topklasse next year, so we shall be devoting some attention to that issue as well over the next three weeks. Not forgetting entirely this Sunday’s final round in the Topklasse Relegation Pool, where ACC will be trying to bid farewell to the top flight, for now at any rate, with a third successive victory.

RL: The first semi-final has been given additional interest by the way in which VRA demolished HCC in their crucial game last Sunday. If their attack can produce that sort of form again this week they could put pressure on a Punjab top order which has been instrumental in taking their side to the top of the table and keeping them there. Despite Jonathan Vandiar’s boundary-packed knock there was a definite wobble against a depleted Voorburg attack at the Zomercomplex last week, and although Punjab proved that they bat deep, not even needing skipper Sikander Zulfiqar to come to the crease, and indeed their line-up will be strengthened by the return of his triplet brother Saqib, VRA, too, will be reinforced by Vikram Singh and Shariz Ahmad. It’s the pace attack of Ben Fletcher, Elijah Eales and perhaps Ashir Abid, however, which is capable of putting the home side under early pressure, with Shariz, Clayton Floyd and Leon Turmaine to turn the screw later on. Vandiar, however, is always a threat, not to mention Shoaib Minhas and Musa Ahmad, and Punjab’s attack, nagging rather than explosive, will make life as difficult as possible for their visitors’ talented batting.

BdJ: The shoulder niggle that kept Saqib on the bench for the Dutch is likely to mean he’ll be playing principally as a bat, though against a full strength VRA Punjab will likely be glad of the extra depth. VRA were likewise at full strength when last the two met at the Zomercomplex early in the second phase of course, notably also the occasion of the Amsterdammers’ most recent defeat. Nonetheless they do look the side most likely to test Punjab’s batting, with no obvious weak link in the attack and wicket-taking options galore. Punjab have yet to lose a game at home this season however, which in and of itself should be plenty of motivation for VRA to break the streak and secure a home final.

RL: Voorburg’s defence of their title has just about survived the loss of their internationals and outstanding overseas player Gavin Kaplan, and they will be able to welcome the former, at least, back into the side when they take on HCC at De Diepput on Sunday. The Lions will need to put up a much more convincing display with the bat than they managed in the Bos last week, especially if the Voorburg attack features Viv Kingma and/or Ryan Klein. It was the champions’ batting which suffered most in recent weeks, though, and the return of Michael Levitt, Noah Croes and batting allrounder Klein will add the solidity which has been lacking during phase two. Apart from the departure of Conor McInerney HCC do not have the excuse of physical absence to explain last Sunday’s lapse, and they will have to find a good deal more resolution if they are to see off a potentially resurgent Voorburg and keep their own title hopes alive.

BdJ: If the VCC attack does feature Kingma it’ll be a minor medical miracle – the heel issue that kept him out of the Dutch side expected to keep him on the sidelines at least until the final, should Voorburg make it that far. Similarly if Klein does bowl it’ll likely be the offspin he’s been sending down of late, admittedly with decent reward. That said the return of the international contingent will provide a welcome boost to the batting, and a timely one too as there’s a good chance the VCC seconds’ relegation showdown with Dosti will see a fair few occasional first-teamers headed to Drieburg. Whether HCC are in a position to capitalise on the defending champions’ resource-allocation dilemma is open to question though, certainly it’ll take a better showing than what they put up at VRA last week however tough the conditions.

RL: The inevitability of relegation seems to have had a liberating effect on ACC, and especially on Ben van der Merwe, whose two most significant 50-over innings have guided the side to victory in their last two games. It would be a remarkable, if ultimately fruitless, achievement were they to make it three in a row against Excelsior ’20 on Sunday, but beneath those wins is the more disquieting truth that the club’s home-grown players seem still to be out of their class in the top flight. The crop of youngsters they have been trying out in the back half of the campaign may be better able to find their feet in the Hoofdklasse, and that will be vital for the long-term future of the club. Excelsior’s local players have scarcely been more successful, even those who were in championship-winning sides not so long ago, and the Schiedammers’ dependence on Ingram, Mitchell and Ralston for such success as they have had should be giving rise to almost as much concern at Thurlede as there will (or should) be at Het Loopveld.

BdJ: Indeed it’s notable that aside from the overseas, Excelsior’s most valuable player with bat and ball this season has been the newly-arrived Victor Lubbers – a fortuitous acquisition from Salland. While the Schiedammers never looked in real danger of relegation this season, there’s certainly good reason to worry how sustainable their position in the top flight will be if their local contingent continues to regress. For ACC a stint in the Hoofdklasse may be salutary, but they need only look across the water for a reminder that even survival in the second tier is far from guaranteed.

RL: VOC Rotterdam will top the Relegation Pool regardless of the result of their final match against Sparta 1888 at the Hazelaarweg, but they will doubtless be keen to end their season in winning vein. For their opponents, beaten by ACC last week, a final victory is perhaps even more necessary in terms of morale, and both clubs will be keen to see their overseas contingents perform effectively as they bid farewell to a disappointing season. The Bloodhounds have at least had valuable contributions from the Jain brothers, Asief Hoseinbaks and Jelte Schoonheim, while Roman Harhangi and continues to show potential, but for Sparta the only real local compensation has come from skipper Martijn Snoep, and the fact that he only bowled one over last week was undoubtedly a key factor in their defeat.

BdJ: Another season where Sparta owe their survival largely to Snoep and the foreign contingent, (be the from the other side of the globe or a little closer to home in the case of Belgium’s Khalid Ahmadi). Sint Maarten’s Shaquille Martina was the only Dutch national to pass fifty for the Spartans this season, and Umar Baker the only local bar the chairman to take ten or more wickets. For VOC the season’s highlights have mostly come in the form of successfully staging internationals rather than any on-field efforts by the first team, and while they’d doubtless like to sign off with a final home win one suspects both sides at Hazelaarweg will be happy enough to put this season behind them.

RL: With just one 50-over defeat all season (at the hands of Hercules Utrecht), Kampong Utrecht have dominated the round-robin phases, and they will be delighted to welcome back internationals Max O’Dowd and Scott Edwards for the denouement. They’ve already beaten Quick Haag twice, by 111 runs and by eight wickets, and by comparison with many sides in the top divisions they have a healthy crop of locally-based younger players, led by skipper Alex Roy. But their leading run-scorer has been South African-born, Dutch-qualified 19-year-old batter Damien van den Berg, ably supported by New Zealander Ben Pomare, while the bowling has been dominated by Shashank Kumar, whose 35 wickets so far have come at an average cost of 9.60. Quick’s side still features many of those who played when the club was last in the top flight, such as Geert Maarten Mol, Lesley Stokkers, Jeroen Brand and Bobby van Gigch, but they owe their second spot on the table in large measure to Western Australian allrounder Nathan Crudeli, who has made 387 runs and taken 33 wickets so far. He is backed up by Canterbury left-hander Regan Sheahan, and these two will need to be at their best if Quick are to upset Kampong at Maarschalkerweerd on Sunday.

BdJ: Given Kampong’s dominance this season, recording just a single loss despite missing Edwards and O’Dowd for half their fixtures, it’s fair to say it would take an almighty choke for them to stumble at the penultimate hurdle on Sunday (though preferable to doing so in the final of course). They saw off Quick’s veterans easily enough in their two regular season encounters, and though age does not seem to have wearied Quick’s old guard they don’t look to have an answer to the firepower a full strength Kampong can muster these days. Even without their two Dutch internationals the roster at Maarschalkerweerd would be the envy of several Topklasse clubs, and should Quick succeed in interrupting the apparent procession to the title it would be the upset of the round.

RL: Bloemendaal haven’t featured in the top division since 1990, but third place in the league phase this season has given them an outside chance of making a surprise return. They lost at home to Salland by seven wickets in July, but had their revenge with a six-wicket victory in Deventer a fortnight later, so this could be a very interesting battle. The improved fortunes at the Donkerelaan have been achieved in large part through the contributions of three Pretoria-based South Africans, Dihan Bekker, Keagan Thiele and Luca Balducci, and well as Portugal’s – yes, you read that right – Francoise Stoman, and the side is led by another South African, Karl Marais, now living in the Netherlands. His 419 runs hat 52.88 have also made a big difference to Bloemendaal’s success this year, while veteran Masood Khan and former Dutch international Quirijn Gunning have contributed usefully with the ball. Salland, of course, played in the Topklasse in 2023, and they still rely on their contingent of German-based players, including Venkat Ganesan, Talha Ahmed Khan, Akhil Gopinath and Acelan Pruss.

BdJ: Dutch domestic cricket as a destination competition for continental European talent is one of the less remarked-upon stories of recent years, and indeed it’s increasingly rare to come across sides at the European Championships that don’t have at least a couple of players with a season or two in the Netherlands under their belts. Salland of course are an extreme example in this regard, to the point that the first team’s reliance on talent from across the eastern border ought to be a point of concern, though there’s no question the German contingent is a substantial asset on the field. With Bloemendaal likely to be understrength come Sunday, Gunning amongst those in doubt due to injury, there’s every chance Salland could leapfrog them into the semis – just two wins away from an unlikely Topklasse return.

RL’s picks: Punjab, Voorburg, Excelsior, VOC; Kampong, Bloemendaal.

BdJ’s picks: VRA, HCC, Excelsior, Sparta; Kampong, Salland.

Two rounds to go, and in the Championship Pool all six terams still have at least a theoretical chance of making it into the semi-finals on 1 September. For Hermes-DVS that means winning both their remaining games and two of three teams above them losing both theirs, so the theory in question approximates that involving phrenology or a flat earth, but still, you never know. In the Relegation Pool, with three rounds to play and ACC already certain to go down, the only thing at stake is pride, which can sometimes be in short supply at this fag end of the season. You’d hope that individuals at least might have a point to prove – and those whose enthusiasm is waning could do worse than have a look at the latest Freddie Flintoff series currently airing on BBC. Words like ‘inspirational’ can be over-used, but there has never been a better illustration of sport’s, and specifically cricket’s, ability to transform lives. Anyways . . .

RL: The obvious candidates for the double-loss scenario are Voorburg, with almost half their side either engaged in national team commitments or already back in South Africa, and their options further restricted by their second team’s battle to stay up in the Hoofdklasse, where they need two more wins to be safe. Their opponents at Westvliet this Sunday are VRA Amsterdam, and they will have been encouraged neither by their visitors’ effortless demolition of HBS last week nor by their own performance against HCC. That is not to say that the defeat of their half-strength side by the rampant Lions was altogether without redeeming features, and they will be hoping that their top order can conjure up some of the stickability shown by the bowlers under pressure, and wit the bat by stand-in captain Floris de Lange. Mees van Vliet and Michael Molenaar remain key, but even without Vikram Singh and Teja Nidamanuru VRA’s batting line-up is menacing, and the pace attack, led by Ben Fletcher and Elijah Eales is capable of exploiting any sign of weakness in Voorburg’s top six.

BdJ: The national selectors’ wait-and-see call on Fletcher has left VRA’s seam attack largely intact, and while they’ve lost their new spin acquisitions for the duration of the international series, having the likes of Turmaine, Nashier and Iles to fall back on means the Amsterdammers are hardly short of slow bowling either. Voorburg are more appreciably weakened by national call-ups, and though word is they’re looking into exercising their right to reinforcement under the 3+ call-ups rule, with a southpaw spin all rounder reportedly on a plane from New Zealand as we speak, there’s no question the young side will start as underdogs on Sunday.

RL: Having both lost last Sunday, Punjab-Ghausia and HBS Craeyenhout will both be exceptionally keen to claim the points at the Zomercomplex, but the stakes are subtly different: a win here would likely guarantee Punjab a top-two finish and the double crack at a grand final spot which comes with it, while for their visitors there is still a slight chance that they could miss out on the semi-finals altogether. Given Hermes’ recent efforts, it would not be an attractive prospect to be going to Schiedam next week on a must-win mission, so Tayo Walbrugh’s side will really want to ease the pressure by taking advantage of Punjab’s occasional fragility. The absence of Lehan Botha as well as internationals Wesley Barresi and Kyle Klein gave the Crows a somewhat makeshift look against VRA, but by the same token Punjab’s collapse against Hermes suggested a greater malaise than can be explained by the loss of Musa Ahmad, or even of Ahmad Shafiq, for whom Khurram Shahzad has proved a more than adequate replacement. Like Walbrugh for HBS, Jonathan Vandiar has a talismanic quality for the Rotterdammers, but his struggles with fitness in the course of a long innings are increasingly evident, and others will need to chip in if they are to avoid a repeat of last week’s subsidence.

BdJ: HBS too are understood to be calling up reinforcements this week in the form of various Vinks and perhaps Visées, and after a near-flawless season to date Punjab do suddenly look vulnerable to a blast from the past. Nonetheless the loss of their skipper along with their most consistent performers leaves a big gap in the Crows line-up, and despite a surprise loss to Hermes one still feels it will take something special to unsettle an enviavbly settled Punjab side.

RL: Hermes-DVS showed considerable resilience in overcoming Punjab last Sunday, but they will need to summon up even greater reserves of determination when they travel to De Diepput this week to take on HCC. The Lions have begun to roar with a vengeance, and they know that wins here and against VRA next week would ensure them a top-two position for the semi-finals. They have lost only one of their last six games, and although Conor McInerney has departed from the top of their order they have a settled side which consistently produces the goods with both bat and ball. That said, Sebastiaan Braat’s outfit know that they have to keep winning, and despite the loss of Aryan Dutt and Olivier Elenbaas to the Dutch national side and Daniel Coyle to Spain’s, they have twice pulled off unlikely victories against more fancied opponents, and you can’t rule out the possibility that they will do it again.

BdJ: The newly-promoted Hermes have already achieved more than they set out to at the start of the season, and it seems as though the total absence of pressure that their unexpected situation as top-six underdogs affords them has turned them into a dangerous wildcard fixture at the back end rather than the easy beat some might have expected. The loss of Doyle-Calle to Euro-qualifier duty certainly removes some of that threat, but HCC looked rather unconvincing against a depleted Voorburg last week, and indeed were it not for Daniel Crowley’s solo showing would likely have lost to a second string VCC side. The pressure will be all on the Lions to cement a top-two finish before the rest of the field recovers their strength, while the men in sky blue will have nothing to lose.

RL: This week’s Relegation Pool match-ups are the reverse fixtures from last Saturday’s, so ACC, now certain to be playing in the Hoofdklasse in both formats next season, will be at home to VOC Rotterdam this week. The luck of the draw means that it will be a somewhat drawn-out farewell, since they will play all three of their final Topklasse matches (for now, at least) at Het Loopveld. It would be good for team morale were they to stage at least one ambush, but that seems unlikely to be against the Bloodhounds, who were clearly a class too strong for their opponents at the Hazelaarweg. VOC have little to show for their heavy investment in overseas talent this season, but no doubt the players themselves will be keen to make hay while the sun shines, assuming, of course, that it does.

BdJ: What’s the opposite of match of the day? It’s been an abject season for an ACC squad that, while weakened, still boasts enough young talent that you can fairly say they’ve under-performed drastically this summer. A 15-year run in the top flight comes to a regrettable but hardly undeserved end. VOC owe their own survival in large part due to their overseas, who have all have earned their keep this season, though for the rest of the squad it’s been a bit “get what you pay for.” The brothers Jain along with the unassumingly effective Asief Hoseinbaks are perhaps exceptions there, and a big part of the reason you’d back the Bloodhounds as favourites on Sunday with or without the overseas cohort.

RL: The rematch between Sparta 1888 and Excelsior ’20 is, if last week’s game at Thurlede is any guide, likely to be a good deal closer, and while these sides are unlikely to produce a classic, it promises to be another tight battle between teams which are pretty similar both in their strengths and their weaknesses. It’s not that long ago that Excelsior won the title three times in four seasons, but while they have had their moments this year, they have mostly been a pale shadow of their former selves. And with their second side languishing in the Tweede Klasse their medium-term prospects don’t seem a great deal brighter. Sparta don’t have the same sort of pedigree, although they have punched above their weight a few times in recent seasons; there is no doubt, however, that they have greatly missed Mudassar Bukhari and Ashan Malik this year, and they, too, will need to do some serious thinking about the way forward. In the meantime, we can look forward to another head-to-head between the two leading wicket-takers in the competition, Sydney-sider Jason Ralston and Capetonian Cameron Fraser.

BdJ: Another season where the Capelle club look set to survive thanks to some judicious acquisitions and captain-chair Martijn Snoep’s sheer force of will, still it’s hard to begrudge the Spartans another summer in the top flight even if they’ve never quite looked like they belong. Conversely it’s hard not to feel that the shock of relegation might have done Excelsior some good, even if it never looked remotely likely to happen. Ralston’s golden summer along with the efforts of the indefatigable Lorenzo Ingram have kept the Schiedammers well clear of danger even as the local core of the side has only regressed. Indeed one might almost think the multi-championship-winning side of the late 2010s was full of aging veterans rather than a promising squad full of prospects in their early 20s, who ought to be better players now than they were then. Even a coasting Excelsior side are at least paper favourites for this fixture however, certainly with Sparta having already secured their survival last week.

RL’s picks: VRA, Punjab, HCC, VOC, Sparta.
BdJ’s picks: VRA, Punjab, HCC, VOC, Excelsior.