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Rod Lyall 18/08/25

The final game of Sunday’s T20 Cup round pitted leaders Voorburg against Punjab-Ghausia, their nearest challengers, Punjab moving to the top of the table by virtue of a four-wicket victory over a depleted Voorburg.

Voorburg’s earlier match against VOC Rotterdam had come to an abrupt and unfortunate end when, six overs into the Rotterdammers’ reply, there was a collision between Michael Levitt and Ryan Klein as they went for a catch, and play was suspended as both received medical attention.

VOC were on 39 for three at the time, 16 behind the DLS par score, and with Levitt heading to hospital for a concussion check, Voorburg took the points.

Levitt and Klein had been instrumental in Voorburg’s total of 171 for four, the international opener’s 52-ball 63 and first-wicket stand of 89 with Cedric de Lange (42 from 30) getting the innings off to a rollicking start, and Klein topping things off with an unbeaten 31 from 16 deliveries.

Siebe van Wingerden claimed the first three wickets and finished with three for 28, but then Mees van Vliet and Carl Mumba took the top off VOC’s increasingly fragile batting, before the match came to its premature end.

Rain delayed the start of VOC’s second match, against Punjab-Ghausia, reducing it to 16 overs a side, but when it got under way spinners Khurram Shahzad and Musa Ahmad quickly did some reducing of their own as VOC slumped to 17 for five; Shahzad claimed two for 10 in four overs and Musa three for 14 in three.

Tim de Kok watched the carnage from the other end, making 23 before becoming one of three victims for Shoaib Minhas, at a cost of 20 runs, and a spirited lower-order knock of 23 from Ramdas Upadhyaya enabled the Bloodhounds to reach 65 all out.

Punjab were untroubled in overhauling this target, Minhas (25 not out) and Jonathan Vandiar (38 not out) largely content to pick up ones and twos as they cruised to a ten-wicket victory with almost four overs to spare.

So it was a rejigged Voorburg side which took on Punjab in the final game of the day, and the batting struggled against the visitors’ spinners, Muhammad Gondal taking five for 12 and Musa Ahmad three for 35 as they were dismissed for 102.

It would have been worse but for 22 from Patient Charumbira, batting at nine, and Voorburg had just a hint of a chance when Van Vliet and Mumba had Punjab 71 for five in reply.

But Minhas was still there, and his 37 took his side to within four runs of victory before Van Vliet returned to dismiss him, finishing with three for 24, and Punjab won with seven deliveries to spare.

Another fine effort with the ball and a punishing innings from Daniel Doyle kept Hermes-DVS in touch with the leaders, as they never let HBS off the hook at Craeyenhout, restricting them to 121 for nine and then completing the win in just 11.1 overs.

Skipper Sebastiaan Braat led from the front, removing Wes Barresi, Tayo Walbrugh and Kyle Klein inside the powerplay, and although the tail wagged somewhat, enabling the Crows to recover from 75 for eight, their total seemed below par at Craeyenhout.

So it proved, Doyle smashing a 42-ball 98 not out which included 13 fours and six sixes, Ash Ostling content to play a watching role at the other end with an unbeaten 22.

At De Diepput VRA Amsterdam posted their first win of the campaign, beating HCC by 72 runs.

Vikram Singh again gave the Amsterdammers a lively start with a 20-ball 39, including three fours and three sixes, and after Johan Smal and Jack Cassidy chipped in with twenties Viraj Thakur pushed the total on to 170 for eight with a 33-ball 45.

Josh Brown was again the most successful of HCC’s bowlers, taking four for 39 to boost his haul for the weekend to eight.

Peter Ruffell and Ben Fletcher removed Oliver White and Boris Gorlee within the first eight deliveries of HCC’s reply, a double blow from which they never recovered, and although Brown completed a fine allround effort with 57 from 32 balls, no-one else got into double figures as, with the weather closing in, the side slumped to 69 for six.

Vikram Singh ran through the middle and lower order, taking three wickets in his first two overs, including that of Brown, and then adding another after switching ends to finish with four for 19, while Tharun Moorthy needed only three deliveries to take the last two as the innings ended on 98 all out..

Another batting collapse by Rood en Wit paved the way for Sparta 1888’s eight-wicket victory at Sportpark Eindenhout, Ahsan Malik taking three for 13 in his four overs as the home side were quickly reduced to 24 for five.

That became 45 for nine, but skipper Jordan Woolf showed some resistance with an unbeaten 33 which saw his side to 76.

Kyle Klesse again led the way for Sparta with a 33-ball 42 not out, and they needed only 12.1 overs to knock off the runs and maintain their challenge for a spot in the semi-finals.

It looked as if the Haarlemmers might be in for another drubbing as Raynard van Tonder (53 from 36 deliveries) and Roel Verhagen (32 from 29) rattled up an opening stand of 89 after Woolf asked Excelsior ‘20 to bat, but then Manzoor Tarake, with support from Arnav Mishra, cut through the middle order, seven wickets falling for the addition of 28 runs.

Tarake finished with a remarkable five for 13 from his four overs, but Gijs Kroesen, in company with former skipper Tom Heggelman, led a revival of his side’s fortunes in the closing overs, making an unbeaten 24 as the innings closed on 136 for seven.

The pace of Jason Ralston, who finished with three for 7 off his four overs, was too much for Alexander de Graaff and Arnav Mishra, who fell off the first two deliveries of Rood en Wit’s reply, but solid innings from Saber Zakhil (27) and Basir Tarake (41 from 29) enabled the home side to reach 123 for nine, their highest total of the competition so far.

The 13-run win lifted Excelsior into fifth place on the table, and it’s beginning to look as if next year’s Topklasse T20 might have a rather different composition from its 50-over sibling.

Rod Lyall 17/08/25

Cup-holders Voorburg moved to the top of the table by virtue of two victories on a Saturday which saw the surprises of the opening day largely wiped from the slate.

VRA Amsterdam seized the initiative in their match against Voorburg at the neutral Loopuyt Oval as Peter Ruffell claimed three quick wickets, but Henry Melville’s 43-ball 58 saw them to 145 for six before his dismissal cued another flurry of wickets and they were all out for 151.

Ruffell finished with five for 17, while Shariz Ahmad chimed in with four for 13.

Vikram Singh gave signs of a welcome return to form, driving sweetly on his way to 34 from 24 deliveries, but despite Jack Cassidy’s 29-ball 35 VRA were unable to match the required rate, and the innings closed on 119 for eight.

A shortage of umpires had caused the opening matches in the two triple-headers scheduled for Saturday to be postponed until next week, so hosts Hermes-DVS missed out on the opener against VRA, but were soon on the back foot in the day’s final game at the Loopuyt, against Voorburg.

Mees van Vliet struck early, removing both Daniel Doyle-Calle and Ash Ostling, and it was the Elenbaas brothers who were largely responsible for the home side reaching 117, opener Ralph making 23 and elder brother Olivier 38.

Sebastiaan Braat struck back when Voorburg replied, bowling the dangerous Michael Levitt with the fourth ball of the innings, but Noah Croes saw his side to a six-wicket victory with an unbeaten, 40-ball 61, sharing a fourth-wicket stand of 56 with Ryan Klein (34 from 21), and Voorburg won with almost five overs to spare.

HCC’s Josh Brown pricked Sparta 1888’s balloon at Sportpark Bermweg as last week’s surprise package found the Lions’ total of 154 beyond them.

Clayton Floyd had been instrumental in their reaching that total with a 25-ball 48, helped by twenties from Brown and Boris Gorlee, Khalid Ahmadi the most successful of Sparta’s bowlers with three for 26.

Coming on in the fifth over after Kyle Klesse and Ahsan Malik had made a promising start to Sparta’s reply, Brown began with a maiden before claiming three wickets in his second over, reducing the home side to 29 for four, and then added the vital scalp of Klesse in his next.

There was no way back for Sparta from that position, and although Umar Baker made 30 against the change bowlers, the innings ended on 105.

Punjab-Ghausia proved much too strong for Rood en Wit at the Zomercomplex, dismissing the Haarlemmers for 94 and then knocking off the runs in under 13 overs for the loss of four wickets.

Alexander de Graaff gave his side a decent start with a 26-ball 34, but thereafter Punjab’s spinners took over, Saqib Zulfiqar returning the remarkable figures of four for 2 in three overs and Shoaib Minhas taking three for 15.

Izmatullah Nasery again gave Rood en Wit hope by removing Jonathan Vandiar and Musa Ahmad, but Saqib (33 not out) and Burhan Niaz (21 not out) combined in an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 30 to make sure of the points.

In the day’s other curtailed triple-header, at the Hazelaarweg, VOC’s opening encounter with HBS Craeyenhout was rescheduled, but the Crows proceeded to set the day’s highest total with 176 for eight against Excelsior ‘20.

They were given a great start by Wesley Barresi’s 18-ball 34, and despite losing Lucas del Bianco, who was forced to retire after collapsing on the pitch in evident pain, they went on to their substantial score thanks to 35 from Kyle Klein.

Raynard van Tonder (39) and Roel Verhagen (42) put on 70 for the first wicket when Excelsior replied, but once they had gone HBS were able to peg the scoring back, Luuk Kroesen’s 27 the best effort from the middle order as the innings closed on 156 for six.

Excelsior struck back, however, in the day’s final game, dismissing VOC for just 59 and needing only 6.1 overs to complete a crushing ten-wicket victory.

Jason van der Meulen, the only survivor of VOC’s four overseas players from the 50-over competition, was the only one to reach double figures, making 29 before becoming one of four victims of Verhagen’s gentle off-spin, at a cost of 13 runs.

Van Tonder (42 not out from 26 deliveries) and Verhagen (18 from 11) then completed the win, greatly improving their side’s net run rate in the process.

Sunday will see a further seven matches, several sides passing the halfway mark in this highly-compressed round robin by the time the third round is completed.