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VOC shock Kampong, tightening the table at both ends

Rod Lyall 10/06/25

Ninth-placed VOC Rotterdam sprang the surprise of the season so far with a hard-fought three-wicket victory over leaders Kampong Utrecht at Hazelaarweg on Monday.

The win was spearheaded by 17-year-old Aaditt Jain, who grabbed three wickets inside the first nine overs to reduce Kampong to 38 for three.

A partial recovery by Lachlan Bangs and Lorenzo Ingram was halted by the spin of Siebe van Wingerden, who removed both, and it took a fighting 56 from Pierre Jacod to get the leaders up to a moderately respectable 188, Aaditt Jain returning to collect another and finish with four for 40.

VOC soon found themselves of 25 for two when they replied, but Scott Janett and Christiaan Oberholzer combined in a stand of 94 for the third wicket, turning the game back the Bloodhounds’ way.

Oberholzer’s dismissal for 33, followed by that of Scott Janett, who made a fine 85, gave Kampong some hope, and with four wickets falling for 18 runs it seemed that VOC might again implode.

But Aaditt Jain now joined elder brother Arnav at the crease, and in growing tension they knocked off the remaining runs to give their side victory with two deliveries to spare.

Meanwhile, at the Loopuyt Oval, second-placed Hermes-DVS were unable to capitalise on Kampong’s defeat, losing to HCC by three wickets in another tight, low-scoring encounter.

The Lions’ pace attack never allowed the Hermes innings to gain any momentum after Sebastiaan Braat had elected to bat, Hidde Overdijk taking four for 22 and Teun Leijer three for 16 as the home side were dismissed for 151 in 39.2 overs. Hermes opener Daniel Doyle-Calle top-scored with 31.

The Hermes attack, so often the key to their success this season, struck back early in the HCC response, and at 73 for five the chase appeared to be faltering.

But with runs at a premium Shashank Banerjee’s 30 before he was run out by a smart direct hit from Doyle proved instrumental in HCC’s win; only eight more were required when he departed, and Daniel Crowley (30 not out) and Overdijk saw their side home with nine overs left.

HCC’s victory brought them to within one point of Hermes and three of Kampong, and they were joined there by two more Monday winners: Voorburg and Punjab-Ghausia.

In the only game where overs were lost, a delayed start at Westvliet reducing each side to 47 overs, Voorburg imposed themselves on Sparta 1888 almost from the outset, a destructive ten-over spell from veteran medium-pacer Usman Malik yielding figures of four for 16 and reducing Sparta from 46 for one to 88 for six.

After some resistance from Manminder Singh and Umar Baker, Floris de Lange claimed three for 6 in nine deliveries, and Sparta were all out for 133.

Voorburg needed only 25.1 overs to secure an eight-wicket victory, Carl Mumba hitting a 29-ball 30 to get the innings moving and Cedric de Lange making 51, leaving Gavin Kaplan and Tom de Leede to finish the job.

On a day when bowlers were generally in charge, the highest scores came at the Zomercomplex, where Musa Ahmad’s unbeaten 114, including six fours and four sixes, was the spine of Punjab-Ghausia’s total of 259 for seven.

Musa shared a second-wicket stand of 76 with Shoaib Minhas (52), and then batted through to the end, a flurry of boundaries taking him to his third Topklasse centuries despite wickets falling at the other end.

A hard-hitting 18-ball 32 from Reece Mason gave HBS a brisk start, and when Tayo Walbrugh (46) and Lehan Botha (68) put on 106 for the third wicket in just 20 overs the Crows seemed on course for a notable victory.

But then Punjab’s spinners reasserted themselves, Musa removing Botha and Minhas Walbrugh to set in train an HBS collapse which ended with their being all out for 221, Saqib Zulfiqar celebrating his return to fitness with three for 46.

In a crucial battle on the fringes of the relegation zone, VRA Amsterdam got the better of Excelsior ‘20 at Thurlede, although the Schiedammers’ batters showed more fight than they had when the two sides met on the opening day of the season.

Again it was the bowlers who were largely on top, 42 from skipper Johan Smal and 53 from Jack Cassidy the most significant contributions to VRA’s somewhat under-par total of 197 all out.

Jason Ralston claimed three for 24 in nine overs, including the wicket of Cassidy, while Antum Naqvi took three for 30 and Niels Etman two for 36.

The Amsterdammers’ four-man seam attack then cut through the Excelsior top order, and at 54 for five there were echoes of that opening-day game, in which the side had been dismissed for 85.

Captain Roel Verhagen was still there, however, and he shared partnerships with Joost Kroesen, Etman and Ralston which took the total up to 150.

Once he found himself batting with last man Jens Blankestijn with 45 still required, Verhagen concluded that attack was his only option, hitting Sharad Hake for two sixes before the bowler had his revenge, trapping him in front to 80 to finish the innings on 175.

Hake finished with four for 37, while Ashir Abid, who had done much of the early damage, took three for37.

The win edged VRA a little further towards mid-table, but with VOC now level on points with Excelsior, it is only net run rate which prevents the Schiedammers from slipping down into one of the two automatic relegation spots.

Preview Round 10

Rod Lyall & Bertus de Jong 08/06/2025

And so we gallop into the back straight, the Pentecost holiday providing us with another brace of rounds one clear day apart. Things have moved on, of course, since these sides met on the opening day, and in several cases the return games distinctly pit one of the leaders against one of the relegation-threatened. The weather promises to be a good deal more co-operative than it was on Saturday, and we must hope that this time there will be no delays or interruptions .

RL: Having kicked off their season with a rapid nine-wicket victory over VOC back in April, Kampong go into the rematch at the Hazelaaarweg without their two internationals, although it was local boy Pierre Jacod and overseas Lane Berry who were instrumental in that opening-day victory. Jacod has gone on to lead his side’s wicket-takers with 16 at 17.75, and with Lorenzo Ingram chipping in with 14 at 14.86, Kampong’s spin department has been a significant factor in their position at the top of the table. The Bloodhounds’ campaign, on the other hand, has devolved into a fairly desperate battle to avoid relegation, and their victory over VRA on Saturday notwithstanding, even a depleted Kampong will start as favourites against them. There have been occasional glimmers of hope for VOC, but with just two wins in the first half they will need significant, consistent improvement in all departments if they are to avoid slipping down to the Hoofdklasse.

BdJ: VOC’s two wins so far have both come defending low totals, where their opponents in both cases took an arguably over-cautious approach to the chase, eventually collapsing under partly self-applied pressure. It’s difficult to see the same scenario playing out against Kampong, certainly not with Ingram marshalling the middle order. Even Kampong’s depleted batting unit has continued to play positively, and it will take wickets to contain them. The brothers Jain, along with young Roman Harhangi, have been taking their share, but the Bloodhounds will need their own batting card to deliver something more substantial if they are to have a hope of upsetting the frontrunners.

RL: There’s another top vs. bottom meeting at Westvliet, where third-placed Voorburg will be at home to current wooden-spooners Sparta 1888. The Spartans put up a decent effort with the bat on the opening day, but were comfortably beaten in the end by overseas Gavin Kaplan and the returning Bas de Leede. This time, of course, the home side will be without their three internationals as well as De Leede (comparatively) senior, but they still have plenty of local talent to fill the gaps, not to mention Kaplan, Henry Melville and former Zimbabwean Carl Mumba. Joost-Martijn Snoep’s squad, undisturbed by international commitments, have proved themselves doughty fighters on occasion, and this is the sort of match they will have to win, albeit against the odds, if they are to remove the relegation Sword of Damocles which is hanging over their heads.

BdJ: Even at their best Sparta have generally looked outmatched by any side even remotely on their game this season – a banana peel that so far only VRA have slipped on. While Voorburg have looked vulnerable when Kaplan fails at the top – especially in the absence of their internationals – they bat deep enough that even without big runs from their overseas they should be reasonably confident of getting to a score beyond anything Sparta have managed this season. With just five fifties between them in the first half of the season, it’s the Spartan batting that’s chiefly to blame for their current predicament, and without a remarkable turnaround in the top order’s form it’s difficult to see them picking up many more points at all this summer, let alone on Monday.

RL: While some of the air has escaped from the Hermes-DVS balloon, they were back in command against Sparta and will go into their match against HCC at the Loopuyt Oval with plenty of confidence, having demolished their opponents for 99 first time out. They will be without Aryan Dutt this time, his 79 having anchored what proved to be a winning total at De Diepput, but that is compensated for by the presence of Saturday’s centurion Daniel Doyle-Calle and the return to the attack of Olivier Elenbaas. The Lions have had an up-and-down season so far, most of the ups having been provided by Boris Gorlee’s form with the bat and a varied attack led by a resurgent Hidde Overdijk. Overall, though, they’ve been a little less than the sum of their parts, while until a week or so ago, Hermes were distinctly more than the sum of theirs. To be serious title contenders, though, they will need to maintain their momentum, and their spin attack, with or without Dutt, is likely to be crucial in that. Hard to call, this one, but it would be quite something if the Sky Blues managed to roll HCC twice.

BdJ: It’s probably fair to say that Hermes caught HCC somewhat off-guard in their opening game, almost as though the arrival of the season had taken Gorlee’s side entirely by surprise. They’ll be better prepared for the trip to Harga, one imagines, and better rested that their opponents too having had a rain-enforced afternoon off yesterday. Gorlee’s own prolific form is indeed one of the principle reasons for their spot in the top five, though the question of whether the HCC skipper can carry that form from mats onto turf wickets is one he’ll doubtless be keen to answer. More pressing questions might be asked of the rest of the batting of course, though the same could be said of the Hermes line-up besides Doyle-Calle. The Hermes bowling attack has no obvious weak links though, Elenbaas looking sharp on return and Braat himself in excellent form with the ball, meaning the hermes skipper has plenty of options even beyond the slow-bowling section. Gorlee conversely has had to rely mostly on his seamers for wickets, though Ollie White generally delivers ten servicable overs of left arm spin, fellow slow southpaw Clayton Floyd has struggled for form since return from injury. All told Hermes look a team largely playing their best cricket, while HCC have been comparatively inconsistent. The flip side of that though, is that the latter have more room for improvement.

RL: Both Punjab-Ghausia and HBS Craeyenhout seem destined to finish mid-table, although it would be rash to write off a late dash towards the top by one or other of them, or even, for that matter, a plunge into the Nether Deeps. If the former’s going to happen, this would be a very good place to start, and both the home record of the defending champions and the Crows’ away from Craeyenhout suggest that it’s Punjab who are more likely to come out on top here, especially since HBS will be missing Wesley Barresi and Kyle Klein. One shouldn’t write off their remaining resources with either bat or ball, but there’s no doubt Punjab’s top order, led by Jonathan Vandiar and Shoaib Minhas, with Mohsin Riaz currently the man in form, boasts greater potential firepower than that of their visitors. It was Riaz’ century, supported by 71 not out from Sikander Zulfiqar, which was decisive on 27 April after a fluctuating battle, and it would probably take something similar from the Crows’ Tayo Walbrugh to see the rematch go the other way.

BdJ: While HBS will be hopeful that their fortunes will improve once Klein and Barresi return, they may well need to pick up some points without them if they’re to avoid sliding toward danger, with Excelsior – currently occupying the relegation play-off spot – just one win behind them. Punjab’s point from yesterday indeed looks increasingly valuable in that regard, and if the Rotterdammers look up rather than down the washout was almost as good as a win, given Kampong’s huge net run rate advantage over the field. Catching the front-runners looks a tall order at this point for any of the sides on ten points though, likely needing Kampong to lose at least three of their remaining matches to even leave an opening. Punjab have the squad to do it on paper, and it’s worth noting that they’re currently joint third on the table despite practically the entire squad, Riaz and Saqib Zulfiqar excepted, performing well below potential with bat or ball. If a reversion to mean does come a successful title defense is still possible, but they can ill afford to lose games like this if they’re to pull it off.

RL: If Excelsior ‘20 are to escape eighth place and a relegation-deciding play-off against the Hoofdklasse champions – or indeed worse – then their first task is to leapfrog VRA Amsterdam, now just a point ahead of them after the latter’s defeat by VOC and Excelsior’s victory over HBS. That makes the meeting of the two sides at Thurlede on Monday pretty much the Four-Pointer of the Day. The Amsterdammers are, of course, one of the principal losers from the national side’s Scottish foray, with four of their first-choice eleven on the other side of the North Sea, and their reserves have had mixed fortunes so far. The efforts of Sachin Peiris and Viraj Thakur against VOC will have given them some encouragement. ‘Full strength’ on paper, it is true, is not the same as on the park, and Roel Verhagen’s side are in the relegation zone because they have so far been unable to put together a string of all-round performances which measure up to that potential. But this is one they really have to win if they are to prevent their situation from deteriorating further.

BdJ:It’s frankly doubtful that VRA will have spent much time “taking the positives” from events at Hazelaarweg yesterday, though perhaps the second team may have enjoyed their own Peiris and Zaidi being the only two bats that didn’t entirely disgrace themselves. Given VRA’s precarious situation the schedule really hasn’t done them any favours this weekend, pitting them against two relegation rivals in a row while they’re missing fully five players owing to international duty – Patrick Gouge of course also away at the Channel Islands Inter-Insular series yesterday, though he’s expected back for tomorrow. While Excelsior have had to do without Raynard van Tonder, the return of Brett Hampton coupled with Antum Naqvi finding some form with the bat means they look a stronger side than at any point in the season. With VRA looking in a horrid slump – winless now since round five – there’s every chance that the international absentees will return to find their side deep in the relegation hole.

RL’s picks: Kampong, Voorburg, HCC, Punjab, Excelsior

BdJ’s picks: Kampong, Voorburg, HCC, Punjab, Excelsior

Doyle hundred keeps Hermes in touch

Rod Lyall 08/06/25

On a day which began with a real prospect of another washout ground staff, officials and players triumphed over the elements at four of the five Topklasse grounds on Saturday, producing results which both took the leaders further away from the pack and made things a lot tighter at the bottom end of the table.

The chief beneficiaries of the day were Kampong Utrecht, whose thrilling five-wicket victory over third-placed Voorburg at Westvliet kept them clear at the top, still two points ahead of nearest rivals Hermes-DVS.

In a match reduced to 25 overs a side Kampong’s spinners were again in charge, collecting five wickets between them as Voorburg assembled 156 for seven, Cedric de Lange making 40 and stand-in captain Ryan Klein, returning from injury, 34.

The Utrecht side’s replied faltered somewhat at 49 for four, but then Lorenzo Ingram and Alex Roy put on 95 for the fifth wicket, and after Tom de Leede removed Roy for 27 in the penultimate over Ingram finished the job in style, hitting a six to reduce the tension and reach his half-century.

That meant that just two we required from the final over, and after Robert van der Harten levelled the scores with one delivery remaining, Ingram managed the winning run to end on 57 not out.

Chasing the highest total of the day, Sparta 1888’s 175 for eight in a 33-over game at the Loopuyt Oval, Hermes-DVS could thank opener Daniel Doyle-Calle for their seven-wicket win, his unbeaten 115 coming from 86 deliveries and including 13 fours and two sixes as Hermes won with 16 balls to spare.

Sparta’s innings was built around an 82-run stand for the fourth wicket between Kyle Klesse (39) and Juandre Scheepers (53), while for the home side Olivier Elenbaas, bowling for the first time this season, Sebastiaan Braat and Hikmatullah Jabarkhail picked up two wickets apiece.

Doyle then dominated the Hermes reply, with valuable support from Mussayab Jamil (24) and Elenbaas (17 not out), enabling his side to cruise to victory and reinforce Sparta’s position at the foot of the table.

That position was rendered even bleaker by events at the Hazelaarweg, where VOC Rotterdam eased their own situation slightly with a hard-fought 9-run win against VRA Amsterdam.

That outcome had seemed unlikely at the half-way mark, since VOC had failed to make use of their full 27 overs, dismissed for 123 with 11 balls remaining.

42 of those runs had come from Christiaan Oberholzer, with Ashir Abid (three for 20) the most effective of VRA’s bowlers and Topklasse debutant Viraj Thakur pciking up two for 16.

But that fairly modest target proved beyond VRA’s somewhat makeshift batting line-up, depleted by national team commitments, Sachin Peiris, called up to open in place of Vikram Singh, top-scoring with 30 and Ibaad Zaidi making 29.

Brothers Arnav and Aaditt Jain collected five wickets between them, Aaditt taking three for 27, and when Zaidi’s was the eighth wicket to fall, 28 were still needed with three overs remaining.

Aaditt and Jason van der Meulen managed to close things out, and with VRA’s final pair together the innings closed ten runs short of their target.

With VRA losing, Excelsior ‘20’s hopes of escaping the relegation zone were further improved by their own victory over HBS Craeyenhout at Thurlede.

This game was cut to 24 overs a side, and HBS, put in by Roel Verhagen, battled their way to 115 for nine, Verhagen himself equalling a club record with five catches and a stumping.

One of the catches, off Antum Naqvi, was of HBS skipper Tayo Walbrugh, who top-scored with 32, while Joost Kroesen added three more scalps to his tally for the season, at a cost of just 16 runs.

Verhagen then gave his side a solid start with 30, Naqvi made a 39-ball 48, and Brett Hampton completed the task with six overs in hand, facing just one ball after Naqvi’s departure and ending proceedings with a six.

The only match to fall victim to the weather was the mid-table clash between Punjab-Ghausia and HCC at the Zomercomplex, which was abandoned without a ball being bowled.

Their point apiece brought the two sides level with Voorburg, although with inferior net run rates, but at the competition’s halfway point the championship race is increasingly looking like a two-way battle between Kampong and Hermes.

Preview Round 9

Bertus de Jong & Rod Lyall 06/06/2025

We may be barely a month into the cricket season, but the half-way stage of this year’s frenetic Topklasse is already upon us, with another double round looming. Saturday’s schedule especially features a handful of games that may well prove retrospectively decisive, and at the least will be a test of the bench strength of several sides that have lost players to the national team – currently away in Dundee contesting the latest CWC trilateral series again Scotland and Nepal.

[RL: If I may for once violate the conventions of the genre by adding a second headnote, most of what follows is written on the improbable assumption that the weather allows Saturday’s matches to go ahead uninterrupted. In the more likely event that they are abbreviated by rain, the balance obviously shifts, possibly in favour of the heaviest hitters.]

BdJ:The top-table clash between 3rd-placed Voorburg and current frontrunners Kampong at Westvliet is a match that falls into both of those categories, with the hosts missing skipper Noah Croes as well as Michael Levitt and Viv Kingma, while Kampong will be without Dutch skipper Scott Edwards and Max O’Dowd. Down a keeper and opener each, both sides will arguably miss the former more than the latter on current form, while the loss of Kingma is a blow to VCC it is one they’ve become accustomed to this season. For Kampong the importance of Edwards’ role as anchor to an otherwise rather gung-ho top order was illustrated again last week, striking a crucial century as part of a match-turning partnership with Lorenzo Ingram that delivered a critical away win over VRA. In Edward’s absence Ingram’s experience in the middle may prove crucial, should the rest of the top order’s buccaneering approach fail to come off. Voorburg’s batting has been driven above all by the opening pair of Kaplan and de Lange, and while the loss of Croes as backstop and the underperforming but dangerous Levitt will be a blow, their main concern remains a comparative lack of incision with the ball. The return of the now Netherlands-resident Carl Mumba may help in that regard, but one suspects the game will be decided by the battle between a care-free if occasionally care-less Kampong batting line-up, and Voorburg’s young bowling attack.

RL: Even without a handful of internationals, this is undoubtedly the Match of the Day: a win for Kampong would keep them clear at the top of the table going into the back half of the 50-over season, while a Voorburg victory could, depending on events at the Loopuyt Oval, turn the run-in into a genuine three-forse race, with the additional possibility of one or more from the chasing pack bridging the gap to tighten things up still further. Those absences put the spotlight even more than usual on the overseas contingent in both squads: Kaplan, Henry Melville and (in a sense) Carl Mumba for the Villagers, Lane Berry, Lachlan Bangs and (in a sense) Lorenzo Ingram for their opponents (who also, incidentally, have a claim to our ‘Villagers’ nickname, given that that’s what kampong means in Indonesian). And significant as the ability of Kampong’s top order to deal with Voorburg’s bowling will be, so will the match-up between Voorburg’s top six and the Utrecht side’s bowling unit, in which the seam of Kertan Nana, Shashank Kumar and Alex Roy combines effectively with the spin of Pierre Jacod and Akhil Gopinath. This is really one of the most crucial encounters of the season, as the return match on 3 August, when both sides should be at full strength, could well be as well.

BdJ: Already stumbling somewhat, VRA now suffer the hammer blow of losing four first-choice players to the Oranje, potential debutant Ben Fletcher joining Teja Nidamanuru, Shariz Ahmad and Vikram Singh on the tour to Dundee. Their hosts on Saturday, VOC Rotterdam, are conversely entirely unscathed, and may sense a chance to claim some direly-needed points against a weakened and wobbling VRA side. Even without their internationals VRA still boast a solid front line bowling attack however, with lead wicket-taker Peter Ruffel in fine flow, while both young Darsh Abhinay and less-young Leon Turmaine have impressed coming off the bench at the Bos. The batting may be somewhat dependent on stand-in skipper Johan Smal with support from overseas Jack Cassidy and Patrick Gouge, but the Bloodhounds have been no less dependent on their foreign recruits for runs this season. The brothers Jain have been consistent performers, but VOC have lacked a genuine match-winner with the ball as much as with the bat thus far this summer. Nonetheless of late they’ve come close to besting stronger sides than what VRA can likely muster next weekend, and if they’re going to turn their season around they can’t wait much longer to start.

RL: It’s a sign of progress that people seem to be accepting that you need a squad of 15 or so to be in with a real chance of doing well in the Topklasse, and that losing your internationals is the downside of packing your team with them in the first place. Whether VRA have the strength in depth to get the better of sides like a first-choice VOC is indeed moot: it seems a long time since the Amsterdammers, under Peter Borren’s leadership, had the most progressive youth policy in the competition. Their Second XI is having a hard time in the Hoofdklasse, to which they won promotion last year, but they do have possible replacements for Fletcher in Sharad Hake, who made a useful contribution to the Topklasse seam attack at the back end of last season, and Viraj Thakur. Turmaine’s efforts have again been good enough to keep him in the side even when the internationals are back, but the big question is how VRA reinforce the middle-order in the absence of Singh, Nidamanuru and Shariz. Along with the Jains we should not forget Roman Harhangi, who has bowled some great spells so far, while Jelte Schoonheim chipped in usefully last week. With Scott Janett and Christiaan Oberholzer beginning to find their feet with the bat and helping out with the ball, this is an opportunity VOC cannot afford to miss.

BdJ: Another side hit hard by the return of international cricket are HBS Craeyenhout, who will be without not only Kyle Klein, but also their lead wicket taker and most reliable bat in Wes Barresi when they head to Thurlede to take on Excelsior ‘20 on Saturday. Away games on turf wickets have generally posed a particular challenge for the Crows, and without Klein and Barresi much will depend on skipper Tayo Walbrugh and his compatriot Lehan Botha, or for a more impactful cameo from a veteran occasional like Navjit Singh or Toby Visée. Excelsior for their part have seen impressive individual performances from almost every member of their side at one point or another, without being able to consistently translate them into wins. They will likely have far the stronger side on paper and form come Saturday, but the question remains whether they’ll be able to translate paper advantage into points against an HBS side that, while weakened, has found wins in less likely places.

RL: Among those waiting in the wings at Craeyenhout is veteran seamer and former skipper Ferdi Vink, and it will be interesting to see whether he comes into the attack in place of Klein. With 11 runs in three innings the potentially-explosive Visée has yet to fire, but it’s a fair bet that if the Crows persist with his recall some attack is going to suffer. It could conceivably be Excelsior’s, which has lacked the incisiveness it had last season, although as m’colleague observes, HBS are a much more menacing on their own astroturf than they are away from home. But Walbrugh remains one of the classiest batters in the competition, and if the rest of the top and middle order bat around him they are capable of posting a score which would challenge the theoretically more powerful Excelsior batting. They really missed Raynard van Tonder against HCC last week, collapsing dramatically after Sam Rahaley and Roel Verhagen had given them a great start, and they will need to do much better against a Crows’ attack which, even without Klein and Barresi, offers Walbrugh plenty of options with both seam and spin.

BdJ: Firmly in the mid-table both, Punjab-Ghausia and HCC’s clash at the Zomercomplex could set the tone for the rest of the season for the two sides – a late title challenge or relegation battle still on the cards for either in theory. Though the watchful eyes of the Dutch camp have doubtless been monitoring the likes of Overdijk, Gorlee, Floyd, Ahmad and Punjab’s remaining Zulfiqars, both clubs have been unscathed by the selector’s scythe for these rounds at least, and will presumably be at full strength come Saturday. After an underwhelming start to their title defence, Punjab have managed to string three wins together in their last three matches, perhaps building a degree of confidence or momentum. The return of Saqib Zulfiqar to bowling has lent a greater variety to the attack, though the lack of Sikander as seam option remains an issue. The batting hasn’t quite been firing on all cylinders either, but the quality of the top six is such that it’s rarely had to. Conversely HCC have been rather reliant on the prolific Gorlee for big runs at the top this season, even if the middle and lower order has been a steady source of helpful 20s and 30s. Alongside Gorlee’s weight of runs, it’s been the seam attack – the in-form spearhead Hidde Overdijk ably supported by Josh Brown, Henrico Venter and Daniel Crowley – that’s arguably delivered the most points for HCC this season. In conclusion, as they say, Punajb-HCC is a match of contrasts.

RL: That Punjab have been able to win despite Jonathan Vandiar managing just one run in his last two knocks is an indication that their batting overall is starting to run back into form, and you just know that sooner or later, as with Visée, some attack is going to bear the brunt of the big man’s hard-hitting talent. The consistency, though, has been coming from Mohsin Riaz, on course for his most productive season to date, but with players like Fawad Shinwari and Khurram Shahzad coming in at seven and eight, Punjab ought to be riding higher than they are. The same applies, though in a different sense, to HCC, whose attack is among the most effective in the competition. That it can be put under pressure was clearly demonstrated by Excelsior’s openers last week, but the Lions fought back impressively to take the points, and the battle between their bowling unit and Punjab’s top order is one to savour. By the same token, even without Sikander Zulfiqar the champions’ combination of seam and spin, reinforced now by Tehzeeb Haider, will test a HCC batting line-up which has experienced both the highs and lows already this season.

BdJ: Finally erstwhile frontrunners Hermes DVS welcome incumbent wooden-spooners Sparta 1888 to the Loopuyt Oval for what could be a make-or-break game for both sides, albeit for rather different reasons. Back-to-back defeats over the double round last week brought Hermes’ unbeaten streak to a jarring halt, and if they’re to get their title challenge back on track one feels a convincing victory at home to the struggling, straggling Sparta will be necessary, if far from sufficient. To their credit, the dogged Spartans have generally made their opponents work hard for their wins so far, and taken advantage when opportunity arose, as against a weakened and unwary VRA. Last Saturday’s batting capitulation against Punjab might just be an indication that Martijn Snoep’s side (Ahsan Malik aside) have begun to lose their appetite for tenacious resistance and valiant defeat, but if they can rediscover their resolution they could well prove a stern test for a Hermes side likely somewhat shaken by last week’s double blow. The return of Daniel Doyle-Calle, back from Spanish obligations, at the top of the order will doubtless provide some reassurance for the Sky-Blues, and while they will be without Aryan Dutt, the slow bowling section remains the most effective in the competition thus far. Leggie Hikmat Jabarkhail and southpaw Sahil Kothari have taken 33 wickets between them and both average under 12 this season – streets ahead of any competing spin pairing. For Sparta, that means getting to a competitive score on Saturday will require a degree of application that seemed to have deserted them last week.

RL: Doyle’s return is considerable compensation for the absence of Dutt, and it is a tribute to Jabarkhail and Kothari that the Sky Blues can even contemplate with equanimity the unavailability of the Netherlands’ international off-spinner. Likewise the absence from the attack of Olivier Elenbaas, after his brother Ralph Hermes’ leading wicket-taker last season, who has yet to bowl a ball in this year’s competition and indeed missed the first four matches altogether. But their batting has been a lot less reliable, and if anyone can make early inroads it’s Sparta’s Ahsan Malik, who has removed eight of the 14 openers he has faced this season, several of them in the initial overs. On the other side of the balance sheet, Kyle Klesse and Lukas Boorer may be finding the demands made on their batting to be somewhat excessive, and even Juandre Scheepers, a potential trump card with both bat and ball) has yet to really impose himself. Sparta will need all three to come to the party if they are to win here, still more if they are to perform the increasingly unlikely feat of escaping from a rapidly-deepening relegation zone.

BdJ’s picks: Kampong, VRA, HBS, Punjab, Hermes
RL’s picks: Voorburg, VOC, HBS, Punjab, Hermes.

Edwards century takes Kampong clear

Rod Lyall 01/06/25

Aided by a second defeat for rivals Hermes-DVS, Kampong Utrecht took another big step towards becoming the first side since 1939 to win the championship in their first season after promotion when they defeated VRA in the Amsterdamse Bos on Saturday.

Such an outcome seemed unlikely three overs into the match, when Ben Fletcher and Peter Ruffell had reduced Kampong to 10 for three with Max O’Dowd, Daniel van den Berg and Lane Berry all gone, but the Utrecht side were rescued by a 174-run stand for the fourth wicket between Scott Edwards and Lorenzo Ingram.

On a pitch which gave the bowlers plenty of help Edwards and Ingram refused to panic, holding firm for 38 overs and gradually accelerating the tempo until Ingram lashed out at Leon Turmaine and was caught in the deep for 76.

With the innings now into the final ten overs and Kampong chasing runs, Edwards proceed steadily to his century, from 129 balls, as wickets fell at the other end, but then he too perished, caught by Vikram Singh at long off from the next delivery he faced.

Ruffell and Fletcher were the beneficiaries of the quest for runs, Ruffell collecting five for 44 and his new-ball partner four for 47 as Kampong were all out for 239.

Just how crucial Edwards and Ingram’s partnership had been soon become evident when VRA replied, only Jack Cassidy looking at all at home in the conditions as the home side collapsed to 79 for six.

Ruffell managed some resistance in company with the tail, hitting a 27-ball 31, but with Adam Constant unable to bat after injuring himself in the field the innings closed on 127 for nine, skipper Alex Roy the pick of the bowlers with three for 23 and Lachlan Bangs finishing it off with two for 2 in six deliveries.

Hermes-DVS, meanwhile, were suffering an almost-equally decisive defeat at the hands of fourth-placed Voorburg at Westvliet, the home side’s total of 269 for eight built on half-centuries by Noah Croes and Henry Melville, reinforced by 33 from Carl Mumba and an unbeaten 37 from Udit Nashier.

Sebastiaan Braat had initially removed Gavin Kaplan and Cedric de Lange, and came back to collect two more and finish with four for 67, while Hikmatullah Jabarkhail again proved his value in the middle overs with three for 50, including both Croes and Melville.

Viv Kingma, returning from injury, and Tom de Leede then combined to reduce Hermes to 51 for six, and although Braat, Sahil Kothari and Ralph Elenbaas were able to achieve a partial recovery which limited the net run rate damage, Hermes were all out for 162.

The match at the Bermweg followed a similar pattern, Punjab-Ghausia posting 275 for nine, largely thanks to a 109-run partnership for the third wicket between Musa Ahmad and Mohsin Riaz, and then dismissing Sparta 1888 for 102.

Ahsan Malik again made early inroads, removing Jonathan Vandiar with the third delivery of the match and then adding the scalp of Shoaib Minhas, but Musa and Riaz turned the innings around, Riaz making 55 before he was trapped in front by Max Hoornweg.

Musa went on to 91, and with brothers Saqib and Sikander Zulfiqar contributing 38 and 22 and a 13-ball cameo of 21 from Khurram Shahzad, the defending champions reached the day’s highest total.

To this Sparta had no answer, Sulaiman Tariq producing another of his metronomic spells to claim three for 33 and Saqib Zulfiqar taking three for 6 in 5.1 overs, and although Malik, again batting at three, showed great resilience until he was the last out for a dogged 45.

The side of that defeat saw Sparta slip to the foot of the table, since although VOC also lost, to HBS at Craeyenhout, they put up enough of a battle to edge ahead on net run rate.

With Tim de Kok opting to bat first, VOC owed their total of 179 to a solid 58 from opener Scott Janett, with lesser contributions from Christiaan Oberholzer and Jason van der Meulen, not to mention a valuable last-wicket stand of 27 between Jelte Schoonheim and Roman Harhangi.

That never seemed likely to be enough, however, and although Arnav Jain set the hosts back on their heels by removing both openers with just one run on the board, Tayo Walbrugh and Wesley Barresi effectively sealed the issue with a third-wicket stand of 130.

Barresi made 59, his fourth half-century in seven innings, while Walbrugh went on to an unbeaten 92, batting with Lehan Botha to see his side to a seven-wicket victory with more than 12 overs to spare.

Even more dramatic than Kampong’s recovery in the Amsterdamse Bos was the collapse of Excelsior ‘20 after a truly stunning opening by Sam Rahaley and Roel Verhagen, who took HCC’s attack apart in the first eight overs, only to see the rest of the side collapse from 80 without loss to 150 all out.

Rahaley was particularly destructive, smashing six sixes in his 32-ball 53, three of them off a single Clayton Floyd over, but once the openers had gone Hidde Overdijk produced another superb spell, claiming five for 18 in ten overs with five maidens, and HCC were back in command.

Floyd set up the reply with 33, and then Boris Gorlee and Oliver White put the issue beyond debate with a third-wicket stand of 91, Gorlee adding 51 to his impressive tally for the season and White seeing the Lions home with an unbeaten 40.

The day’s results sees VRA slip from third to seventh in an extremely congested mid-table, with just two points separating them from Voorburg, who have taken over the third spot; Kampong, though, now have clear water at the top, while Sparta and VOC slip further off the pace and Excelsior, in eighth, have a worrying three-point gap opening up between themselves and VRA.

Preview Round 8

Rod Lyall & Bertus de Jong 30/05/2025

Barely time to catch our breath, and we’re thinking about the penultimate round of the first half of the competition. The last two rounds featured (or would have bar the rain) the bottom three slugging it out; Saturday sees the top four matched up in games which could have a big influence on the race to the title. A dry Friday gives us hope that normal service will now be restored.

RL: The first question is whether the VRA ground will have recovered from the week’s rain to allow play to start. The club’s new Australian groundsman Dan Baker has probably learned more in the past few days about the hydrology of the Amstel fenlands than he ever wanted to know, and it can be a nightmare preparing a pitch on one of the world’s lowest-lying first-class grounds. But both hosts VRA and (league- rather than water-) table-topping Kampong will be extremely keen to get a crack at the points here, the visitors to maintain their narrow advantage over Hermes, the hosts to get closer to the leaders. The gap is not yet big enough to get the peloton panicking, but they need to stop it growing any further. And what’s not to relish about Max O’Dowd, Lane Berry and Scott Edwards matched up against Vikram Singh, Johan Smal and Teja Nidamanuru, or indeed the spinners’ battle involving Shariz Ahmad and Leon Turmaine on the one hand, and Lorenzo Ingram and Pierre Jacod on the other?

BdJ: Well I can happily report that Amsterdam is currently experiencing near-perfect pitch-drying conditions, warm sun and above all a very stiff breeze hopefully doing the needful down at the Bos. VRA will hope there’s still something in the wicket for the bowlers tomorrow though, as they’ll be relying on their enviable pace attack – including the national team’s most recent recruit in Ben Fletcher as well as the season’s most successful seamer in Peter Ruffel – to check a belligerent Kampong batting card. Indeed the Kampong top order have been buccaneering in the extreme so far this season, regularly rollicking along at 8s and 9s regardless of the match situation. Their willingness to spend wickets in pursuit of net run rate advantage has paid remarkable dividends so far, indeed it’s the reason they’re currently top of the log, and it’s hard to imagine they’ll moderate their approach in deference to anyone. Whether VRA will be able to take advantage, one suspects, will come down to which side takes their chances when they come.

RL: Having surrendered their unbeaten record on Thursday, Hermes-DVS have a new challenge in the form of a visit to Westvliet to take on fourth-placed Voorburg. The Sky Blues will again be without Daniel Doyle-Calle, currently skippering Spain on their tour to Denmark. Yet while his aggression at the top of the order has been a significant factor in their success so far, it’s been the attack which has been their trump card. They cut through Punjab’s top order in defence of a modest total on Thursday, but couldn’t quite finish the job. They are likely to face similar problems facing Voorburg’s Michael Levitt, Cedric de Lange, Gavin Kaplan, Noah Croes and Henry Melville, and they will need to be at their best if they are to avoid a second successive defeat. Voorburg would move to within a point of their opponents if they beat them here, and all things considered, the Villagers will start as favourites.

BdJ: It’s fair to say that the international schedule hasn’t done Hermes any favours in regards this particular fixture, with Voorburg expected to field a full complement of Dutch internationals while Hermes will be without both their lead scorer and the competition’s joint-lead wicket-taker, with Doyle-Calle away with Spain and now Hikmatullah Jabarkhail called back to Belgium for the Mdina Cup. They do still have the other joint lead wicket taker to call on of course, Sahil Kothari in fine form since coming back over from ACC again. VCC, for their part, will likely be without sometime Zimbabwe international Carl Mumba, who’s understood to be nursing a niggle, but Vivian Kingma is back from injury and indeed looked raring to go ahead of the aborted match at the Bos yesterday, as was Flip Boissevain – the aspiring Kiwi legspinner still about for another week or two at least. All told what already looked a tough double-round for the former table-toppers doesn’t look like getting any easier.

RL: Fifth on the table by virtue of a positive net run rate, HBS will welcome VOC to Craeyenhout, keen to ensure that they don’t slip any further. It’s not yet five to twelve for the Bloodhounds, but the relegation clock is ticking, and every new defeat is a step closer to the sealing of their fate. They put up a dogged fight against HCC on Thursday, and they will need to be at least that determined if they are to get the better of the Crows on their own astroturf. HBS clearly have to make the most of the presence of Wesley Barresi and Kyle Klein before they head across the North Sea, Barresi’s form with the ball as well as the bat one of the encouraging features of their season so far. On the theme of bowling evergreens, Jelte Schoonheim kept his side in the game against HCC, but the future lies with youngsters like Roman Harhangi and Aaditt Jain, while VOC would like to see larger contributions with the bat from Scott Janett and Christiaan Oberholzer, Jason van der Meulen having been forced to largely do it on his own on Thursday.

BdJ: Barresi’s form with bat and ball may turn out to be something of a mixed blessing for HBS given that it’s brought him a national recall, and if the Crows are to be regularly without both Barresi and Klein their prospects suddenly look a bit dicey. At full strength though, they will certainly back themselves at home to a struggling VOC side, albeit one that’s shown a measure of both fight and promise through the season, at least in phases. With Monty Singh away on Danish duty they will likely need at least two of their three overseas to fire in the same game if they’re to bag a desperately-needed second win, and even then just getting off the bottom of the table won’t be enough this season. While the younger generation have done well with the ball for the Bloodhounds this season, for the time being it seems the runs will have to come from either the imports or the old guard, and returns from both have been patchy at best.

RL: How long Excelsior will continue to enjoy the services of their fifth overseas player, Brett Hampton, is uncertain, but they need to build some momentum if they are to escape the dreaded eighth spot, and that path lies through HCC, their hosts at De Diepput on Saturday. Deepwell is traditionally one of the first venues to succumb to bad weather, but a couple of days without rain will hopefully have had their effect. A fine century apart, Antum Naqvi has yet to hit his stride with the bat, and the Schiedammers have not been able to fully capitalise on the good starts they have been given by Sam Rahaley and skipper Roel Verhagen. With Jason Ralston and Jens Blankestijn having collected just 14 wickets between them in the first six matches, the Michelle claimed by young Karson Edward against Sparta will have been especially welcome. Their hosts relied heavily on Oliver White and Josh Brown in their hard-fought victory over VOC on Thursday, and will be looking for a more collective effort on Saturday.

BdJ: Fair to say that both sides have looked rather less than the sum of their parts so far this season, with HCC’s blowing hot and cold with bat and ball so far, while most of the Excelsior side have put in at least one excellent individual performance at this point, they’ve tended to come in isolation, and consequently in a losing cause more often than not. HCC, for their part, will be encouraged to have picked up two more points yesterday even without runs from the mercurial Boris Gorlee, and a return to home matting may well augur a resumption in the flow of runs from his bat if the pattern holds. While there is of course a limit to how much confidence one can draw from a nervy victory against last-placed VOC, I’d be minded to go with home advantage here too.

RL: It was the discipline of Punjab-Ghausia’s bowling unit which was the foundation for their defeat of Hermes, economical spells from Suleiman Tariq and Khurram Shahzad paving the way for Burhan Niaz’s sharp assault, with Tehzeeb Haider proving himself a useful addition. But the batting remains more fitful than it was last year, with Mohsin Riaz distinctly its most consistent member. That will give Sparta 1888 some hope as they welcome the defending champions to the Bermweg, but form suggests that the outcome will be another in their sequence of gallant defeats. For Punjab, victory would reinforce their position in the mid-table, while another loss would leave their hosts dangerously isolated, along with VOC, at the foot of the table. Khalid Ahmadi’s hat-trick on Thursday came too late to make a real difference, but Juandre Scheepers’ rearguard action with the bat argues that if he, Kyle Klesse and Lukas Boorer make runs together, the Spartans could post a total which would test Punjab’s slightly fragile top order.

BdJ: It’s worth noting, of course, that both sides will be without the bowlers that bagged 4-fers yesterday, with Ahmadi and Niaz both on international duty with Belgium. Yet while neither side have really impressed with the ball thus far it’s probably fair to say the Punjab have deeper reserves to draw on, especially with Saqib Zulfiqar making a tentative return to bowling yesterday. As unconvincing as their title defence has been so far, the underlying quality in the under-performing Punjab top order is not to be underestimated, with each of the top six having multiple Topklasse hundreds to their name. The current Sparta top order, conversely, have not a one between them. One expects the Punjab batting to at least revert to something closer to their prolific mean at some point in the season, and though it may not necessarily be tomorrow, it’s difficult to see Sparta posting anything that would be beyond the title holders.

RL’s picks: Kampong, Voorburg, HBS, HCC, Punjab
BdJ’s picks: VRA, Voorburg, HBS, Excelsior, Punjab

Kampong edge past Hermes to top the table

Rod Lyall 30/05/25

There were small but significant shifts at both the top and bottom of the Topklasse table after Thursday’s rain-affected Ascension Day round, tremors rather than earthquakes, but enough to cause alarm in at least some clubhouses two matches short of the halfway point.

Not the least meaningful outcome was in the Amsterdamse Bos, where not a ball was bowled, the effects of the morning’s rain leaving the pitch unplayable, frustrating VRA and Voorburg, and forcing them to settle for a point apiece.

This opened up a three-point gap between them and the two leaders, although the damage was curtailed to some extent by the news from Rotterdam’s Zomercomplex, where Hermes-DVS suffered their first defeat of the season, at the hands of defending champions Punjab-Ghausia.

Put in to bat in a match reduced to 40 overs a side and with opener Daniel Doyle-Calle on international duty with Spain, Hermes found runs elusive against a parsimonious Punjab attack, before Burhan Niaz grabbed four quick wickets at a cost of 38 runs to reduce them to 61 for four.

That brought together veteran Nick Statham and the club’s new recruit Mussayab Jamil, who proceeded to add 93 for the fifth wicket in just over 16 overs, Jamil’s 52 his second half-century in the top flight and Statham’s unbeaten 67 his 70th in 477 innings, seven of those converted into centuries.

Hermes closed on 184 for seven, and with half Punjab’s batters out and 101 still needed, the leaders seemed to have given themselves a chance of retaining their unbeaten record.

The defending champions, however, were rescued by Mohsin Riaz and Niaz, who put on 72 for the sixth wicket before Niaz was run out for 41.

Riaz continued in company with Fawad Shinwari, making 63 not out and steering the side to a four-wicket victory with 14 deliveries remaining.

Hermes’ place at the top of the table was taken, albeit only on net run rate, by Kampong, who eked out a three-wicket victory over HBS Craeyenhout in a match reduced to 45 overs.

On a day when most skippers chose to bowl, Tayo Walbrugh took the bold step of electing to bat, and it seemed to be paying off when his side had reached 161 for three with eight overs remaining, Walbrugh himself having contributed 40 of them before he was trapped in front by Pierre Jacod.

But then Akhil Gopinath bowled Lehan Botha, leaving Wesley Barresi to work with the lower middle order, and Lorenzo Ingram took over, removing first Barresi for 45 and then three more to finish with four for 38.

The last six HBS wickets fell for just 14 runs, and with the side all out for 197 the bowlers were left with the extremely difficult task of removing Kampong’s powerful top order.

This they did reasonably effectively, and when the home side were on 87 for five, with O’Dowd, Van den Berg, Berry, Ingram and Bangs all back in the dug-out, the Crows were in with a real chance.

This brought Jacod in to join Scott Edwards, and this pair swung the match back Kampong’s way with a 94-run stand for the sixth wicket, and although Julien de Mey had Edwards caught behind for 49, soon trapping Alex Roy leg-before as well, Jacod saw the side home, finishing with an unbeaten 67.

Barresi’s three for 28 were the best figures for HBS, 13 of the 17 wickets to fall in the match captured by the spinners.

Fielding no fewer than five overseas players, another escalation in the Topklasse Arms Race, Excelsior ‘20 proved too strong for Sparta 1888 at Thurlede, winning their 43-over match by 53 runs, but the Spartans lived up to their name by battling hard against the odds.

It took a 49-ball knock of 67, including five sixes, from New Zealander Brett Hampton to get Excelsior up to the day’s highest total of 234, but it was a Dutch-produced youngster, Karson Edward, who administered the final blows, taking three wickets in five balls to end Sparta’s chase on 181, finishing with five for 11.

Earlier, Raynard van Tonder had anchored the first part of the Excelsior innings with a steady 54, while Khalid Ahmadi delivered the season’s third hat-trick, removing Niels Etman, Jason Ralston and Edward with successive deliveries to finish with four for 29.

Promoted to three, Ahsan Malik contributed 33 to Sparta’s reply, but the best partnership of the innings was 65 for the fifth wicket between Lukas Boorer (32) and Juandre Scheepers, who remained not out on 54.

Sparta remain narrowly ahead of current wooden-spooners VOC Rotterdam, who also fought hard all the way but eventually lost to HCC by 24 runs in the only game where overs were not deducted.

HCC’s innings sputtered along to 211 all out, mostly thanks to a solid 60 from Oliver White and a valuable 29 from Hidde Overdijk, while for VOC Jelte Schoonheim claimed three for 43, including a fine reactive return catch to remove Mark Wolfe (24).

Bowling honours, though, went to Aaditt Jain, who after claiming the early wicket of Clayton Floyd came back to pick up three more, finishing with four for 44; his brother Arnav finished wicketless, but his ten overs conceded only 18 runs, a nagging stint which maintained the pressure on the Lions’ batters.

That VOC came so close to their target was due to an aggressive 71 in 60 deliveries from Jason van der Meulen, who shared half-century partnerships with Christiaan Oberholzer (21) and Tim de Kok (26), but HCC’s overseas pair of White and Josh Brown kepttaking wickets, finishing with four for 27 and three for 31 respectively, and keeper Wolfe helped out with two catches and two smart stumpings.

Preview Round 7

Rod Lyall & Bertus de Jong 27/05/2025

Last Saturday’s wetwash has left things pretty much as they were, although some teams will doubtless be regretting a lost opportunity to steal a march on their nearest rivals. But it now appears that the rainy season has finally arrived in the Netherlands, and our Ascension Day previews are written in the full awareness that Thursday may turn into a Descension Day instead. Since there are enough imponderables already without taking the weather into consideration, what follows assumes that there’s a match-sized gap in the eastward-flowing bands of rain.

RL: Still unbeaten, leaders Hermes-DVS face a tricky trip to the ironically-named Zomercomplex to take on Punjab-Ghausia. These two sides have had contrasting campaigns so far: Hermes, short on big names, have gone on winning thanks to determined team efforts and a remarkably effective attack, while Punjab, with most of the team which carried all before it last season, have struggled. Injuries undoubtedly haven’t helped, and they will be overjoyed to have Saqib Zulfiqar back in the side, especially if he is now fully fit. But the absence of his brother Sikander from the attack has perhaps been an even greater loss of cutting edge, and Punjab will be hoping that bolstering the attack with Tehzeeb Haider will make a difference to their fortunes. Hermes, on the other hand, will know that the men in green are always a tough proposition at the Zomercomplex, and will be looking to their bowlers, who until now have equally been without Oliver Elenbaas but have prospered nevertheless, to contain a potentially devastating top order.

BdJ: An away trip to visit the defending champions will be a significant hurdle if Hermes are to continue their remarkable unbeaten run, even if Punjab have looked off the boil all season. Both the remaining Zulfiqars are expected to play on Thursday too, both having got game time during last week’s pro-series fixtures, though Sikander notably wasn’t bowling and didn’t look at his quickest between the wickets either. With the Belgian national team in action this weekend Punjab will likely also have to do without the services of Burhan Niaz for one if not both of their upcoming games, leaving their seam attack looking still thinner. Hermes’ losses to international duty will hit even harder, however. With Daniel Doyle-Calle captaining the Spanish 50-over side in Denmark and Hikmatullah Jabarkhail headed to the Mdina Cup with Belgium, the front-runners will be losing both their lead scorer and the league’s leading wicket-taker for their trips to the Zomercomplex and then Westvliet. If they can make it through the extended week-end with their lead intact they may seriously start thinking about silverware, but it’s fair to say the odds are against them.

RL: Leading the chase, Kampong Utrecht will welcome HBS Craeyenhout to Maarschalkerweerd for what will be another crucial match for both teams. Just one match behind the leaders, Alex Roy’s men (a) need to prevent the gap from getting any bigger, and (b) will be keen to capitalise fully on the availability of their internationals while they have them. The Crows are likely less affected by the latter, although Kyle Klein is a key member of their line-up, but for them the former is even more significant, since they are already four points off the pace and another defeat would leave them fighting for the best possible place mid-table. Significant as O’Dowd and Edwards are for Kampong, the club made the most of their winter, and Lane Berry, Lorenzo Ingram and Lachlan Bangs, alongside Damien van den Berg, give the Utrecht side a top six as menacing as any in the competition. HBS, it’s true, are very good at making the most of what they have, and no team which includes Klein, Tayo Walbrugh, Wes Barresi and Lehan Botha can be written off. Kampong will need to be at their very best to make sure of the points.

BdJ: Given the availability issues that Kampong are likely to encounter deeper into the season, they can ill afford to drop points when they are at full strength, much less at home. HBS have always been stronger on their own (lack of) turf, and have yet to pick up a win on a natural wicket this season. The Crows have struggled to shake a reputation as mat-specialists in a competition where grass wickets are becoming the norm, and indeed have only won four matches on turf in the past three years. That said, three years and a day ago they did take two points home from Maarschalkerweerd, albeit against a very different Kampong side. The current HBS squad is less a product of Craeyenhout than previous seasons too, and one which on paper might be expected to travel better. All told an upset is not out of the question, though if it does happen one imagines Kyle Klein will have a key role in it.

RL: Currently third and fourth on net run rate, VRA and Voorburg will lock horns in the Amsterdamse Bos in what is undoubtedly one of the day’s four-pointers. Again, one tends to think first of the big names – Singh, Smal, Nidamanuru and Shariz for the home side, Levitt, Kaplan, Croes and perhaps Boissevain for the visitors – but games like this are often swung by the contributions of their team-mates, and Voorburg will be boosted by the performances so far of Cedric de Lange and, more recently, Patient Charumbira. The occasion will also be enlivened by the return to the Bos of Udit Nashier, yet to fit fully into his new outfit but capable of making a significant impression. For VRA, the new-ball attack of Ben Fletcher and Peter Ruffel is likely to be a key factor, although the spin of Shariz and Leon Turmaine can’t be discounted either. The winner here will stay in the hunt for the championship, while life will become much, much harder for whoever drops the points.

BdJ: It’s not been a great season so far for recent champions, and neither VRA (whose memories of 50-over silverware are admittedly somewhat distant now) nor 2023 winners Voorburg have looked their best this season. Voorburg’s enviable batting line-up has been let down somewhat by a bowling unit unsettled by availability and injury issues, and those issues are likely to continue. If they can squeeze another weekend out of Boissevain before he has to go back to New Zealand to make his days as a local there it would certainly be a boon, but one suspects the timer’s already buzzing on that front too. VRA’s bench strength has served them somewhat better, with the likes of Turmaine, Hake or Abhinay stepping up admirably when called up from the seconds, while the front-line seam attack of Fletcher, Ruffel and Abid has been consistently effective. The battle at the top of VCC’s innings where that trio are pitted against the competitions’ most productive opening pair may well prove decisive.

RL: Perhaps even more important for both teams, the meeting between Excelsior ‘20 and Sparta 1888 at Thurlede brings together two sides desperate to move clear of the depths of the relegation zone. Sparta’s keenness to get a crack at VOC last Saturday was very obvious, and no-one perhaps had more reason to be disappointed by the arrival of the rain. At least on paper, Excelsior are a much more serious proposition, with Raynard van Tonder and Antum Naqvi capable of scoring freely against any attack. The local players, too, have chipped in usefully at times, and one has a sense that if they put it all together they could ease clear of the danger zone. Sparta, by contrast, have become skilled at making the most of relatively limited resources, and in Ahsan Malik they still have a pace bowler with match-winning capabilities. The batting has so far been over-dependent on Kyle Klesse, but Juandre Scheepers proved last year that he, too, is able to play important innings, and if ever there was a must-win fixture, this is it.

BdJ: Excelsior had assembled a remarkable roster for the washed-out Schiedam Derby last week, with not only van Tonder and Naqvi lining up but Brett Hampton also ready to take the field in the game that never came, they’re unlikely to look as strong again however. Hampton will presumably be back at Hampshire come Thursday, and there’s questions hanging while the continued availability of Naqvi and van Tonder for the full season is also in doubt. Anything but two points at home to popular relegation-picks Sparta on Thursday would likely see the 2019 Champions supplant Sparta as bookie’s co-favourites to go down along with the hapless VOC. Indeed it would be bitterly ironic if the Schiedammers were to slip out of the Topklasse just as the likes of Stan van Troost and Joost Kroesen were beginning to look at home there. Sparta may claim to be sanguine about their own risk of relegation, but they’ve shown no signs of rolling over this season, and it’s telling that they were one of the two sides to wait the longest last week before giving up on getting a game in…

RL: No less threatened with a spell in the Hoofdklasse, bottom side VOC will entertain HCC, currently sixth on the table and themselves not entirely clear of relegation anxieties. There’s no two ways about it: in terms of firepower with both bat and ball, the Lions have a distinct advantage over the Bloodhounds, although the latter did spring a surprise when their bowlers were too sharp for an out-of-sorts Punjab on 10 May. There’s plenty of talent, if rather less experience, in VOC’s attack, but they are clearly suffering from the largely-unremarked departure of Asief Hoseinbaks, their leading wicket-taker last season but now back at Hoofdklasse club Dosti. Their visitors’ batting has blown a little hot and cold so far, as their position on the table attests, but Roman Harhangi and the brothers Jain, as well as overseas Scott Janett and Christiaan Oberholzer, will need to be at their most effective if they are to keep HCC’s batting to within bounds that their own somewhat shonky batters will be able to match.

BdJ: There’s little question that VOC are outmatched on paper in this encounter, and will be hoping to catch HCC on an off-day, but when those have come for Lions this season they really have been very off indeed, and even this depleted Bloodhounds squad still have the quality to take advantage. That said, while VOC are not the only club affected by Dosti getting the old gang back together this season, I’d have to agree the impact of the loss of Hoseinbaks has received too little attention from the Topklasse commentariat (which I guess is mostly just us really, so our bad there). This week they’ll also have to do without Monty Singh, who’s on duty with Denmark for the first of several engagements, leaving the batting still more dependent on new overseas Scott Jannet, unless someone else in the top order happens upon some kind of form. Playing as they have been VOC will be underdogs if HCC manage more than 150 runs, which they’ve done on three out of five attempts this season.

RL’s picks: Punjab, Kampong, Voorburg, Excelsior, HCC
BdJ’s picks: Punjab, Kampong, VRA, Excelsior, HCC