Rod Lyall 26/06/2023
VRA Amsterdam, HCC and Punjab Rotterdam all moved a step closer to the T20 Cup finals day on Saturday, but the biggest beneficiaries of the day were Excelsior ’20 Schiedam, who kept their hopes alive with fighting victories over VOC Rotterdam and Sparta 1888.
Both wins came in similar fashion, Excelsior performing their old 50-over trick of defending relatively modest totals with parsimonious bowling and committed fielding.
They owed their defeat of VOC very largely to the brothers Etman, Tim making an unbeaten 46 and sharing a valuable fifth-wicket stand of 59 with pace-bowling allrounder Niels, who then proceeded to take three for 14 in four overs as Excelsior defended their total of 133 for five.
VOC skipper Tim de Kok battled hard with a 25-ball 34 before he was run out by Tom Heggelman, but the lower order were unable to fashion the 40 that were still needed from the last five overs after his departure, and Excelsior hung on to win by 11 runs.
The second match at Thurlede was even closer, the home side managing to recover from 16 for three to reach 125 for six thanks to Lorenzo Ingram’s 60 not out from 56 deliveries, and even an even 50 from Will Clark, made from 38 deliveries, wasn’t enough to see Sparta home.
21 were still required from just nine deliveries when he was caught off the bowling of Jens Blankestijn, and that proved too big an ask, Sparta finishing six runs short of their target.
With their last two matches at home to ACC and HBS on 8 July and rivals VOC having to play leaders VRA and Punjab on the same day, Excelsior now have a very good chance of squeezing through to the semi-finals.
VRA retained their position at the top of the table on net run rate with a seven-wicket victory over ACC at Het Loopveld, Tyler van Luin’s three for 10 in four overs having been instrumental in slowing down the home side’s progress every time they seemed likely to gain serious momentum.
Opener Chris Knoll made 32 and Thomas Hobson 37 before Van Luin removed both of them, and he then took three catches as ACC subsided from 107 for two to 137 for eight.
The Australian then got VRA’s reply off to a great start with a 25-ball 38 before being run out, and it was left to Johan Smal and Jack Balbirnie to knock off the remaining runs as the leaders got home with three and a half overs to spare.
Earlier, ACC had battled their way to 103 for nine against HCC, Shreyas Potdar top-scoring with 28, but that was not enough to trouble their opponents greatly; their reply did, however, extend into the 19th over before they completed a five-wicket win.
Tonny Staal’s 44 was the foundation of the victory, but Hobson, Knoll and Devanshu Arya in particular bowled tightly, and HCC needed a steady 28 from Damian Crowley to steer them home.
The other leading side, Punjab, had a mixed day, losing their first match of the triple-header at Het Zomercomplex to Voorburg, but their subsequent win against Salland was enough to keep them level with their main rivals.
Voorburg’s win came from a superb 100 not out from captain Musa Ahmad, made from 63 deliveries and including seven fours and five sixes; he received support from Laurens Boissevain, who made a rapid 25, but otherwise it was essentially a lone effort which enabled his side to chase down Punjab’s 164 for eight and win by three wickets.
Shoaib Minhas had again given Punjab a great start with a 29-ball 44, and although Mees van Vliet pegged them back with three for 38, Rehmat Zulfiqar’s unbeaten 45 ensured that they were able to set a reasonably demanding target.
Musa, however, was not to be denied, despite a Mohammad Shafiq hat-trick to reduce his side to 122 for seven, and his innings was sufficient to inflict a first defeat of the competition upon the hosts.
Punjab bounced back later in the day, beating a battling Salland by five wickets with just three balls to spare.
The Overijssel side had seemed set for a big score when Venkat Ganesan (40) and Finn Raxworthy (41) had taken them to 130 for three, but then Sulaiman Tariq, Minhas and Mohammad Shafiq combined to claim the last seven wickets for 13 runs as Salland suffered another of their implosions.
Tariq took three for 24 and Minhas and Shafiq picked up two wickets apiece, and an innings which had promised better ended on 143.
Another rapid 40 from Minhas led off Punjab’s reply, but it was a 61-run stand for the fifth wicket between Asad Zulfiqar (37 not out) and his elder brother Rehmat (34) which took the home side to the brink of victory,
Victor Lubbers did his best to haul his team back into it with two wickets, but his intervention came too late, and Punjab made sure of the points.
In between, Salland had given themselves some hope of avoiding relegation with a six-wicket win against Voorburg, whom they dimissed for just 119.
Fraser Bartholomew, Gul Ahmad Nasir, Elam Bharathi and Victor Lubbers each claimed two wickets, Nasir grabbing the vital scalp of Musa Ahmad for 11, and Voorburg’s decline from 90 for three to 119 all out was almost as dramatic as Salland’s in the following game.
Piyaranga Ottachchige’s 38 and Raxworthy’s 37 were the key to Salland’s successful run chase, but it was left to Sajjad Naqash and Bartholomew to complete the win with almost four overs to spare.
With an inferior run rate Salland will need to win at least one of their last two matches to have any chance of staying up, but HBS, who did not play this weekend, have two games in hand, while Sparta are one point above their rivals and have three still to play.
TKcricket 