News

Rod Lyall 26/08/19

While Topklasse champions Excelsior ’20 performed their lap of honour at Thurlede on Sunday, most of the interest outside Schiedam centred on Capelle aan den Ijssel and Voorburg, where Sparta 1888 and Quick Haag were fighting to avoid relegation.

Having lost the toss at Sportpark Bermweg, Sparta made a great start against HCC, removing Tonny Staal and, crucially, Bryce Street with just 19 runs on the board.

But Adam Wiffen and Boris Gorlee restored HCC’s fortunes with a third-wicket stand of 71, and after Gorlee departed for 34 Wiffen (64) and Bharat Itagi (51) carried the total on to 174.

Even so, it looked as if HCC might struggle to get past 200 until Douwe Walhain and Olivier Klaus added a brisk 40 for the ninth wicket to get their side up to 237 for eight, a pretty imposing target at the Bermweg.

Martijn Snoep took three for 40 for Sparta, including the key wickets of Street and Itagi, while Andrew Fletcher claimed three for 59.

Sparta needed a solid start in reply, but Street and Ali Ahmed Qasim quickly accounted for the openers, and it was left to Tim de Kok and Mudassar Bukhari to work the side back into the game with a third-wicket stand of 72.

Once De Kok departed for 29, however, only Bukhari stood firm, taking 67 deliveries to reach his half-century as partners came and went.

The asking rate had been creeping upwards, but Bukhari now accelerated the scoring as the wickets continued to fall, Street taking four for 30 and Itagi three for 45.

Bukhari reached his century, the fourth of his career in the top flight and his first for Sparta, with nine wickets down, and when he was last out, caught by Walhain off Itagi’s bowling for 103, Sparta were still 36 short of HCC’s total.

By that time, however, it had become apparent that the relegation threat had disappeared, thanks to Quick Haag’s defeat by Voorburg at Westvliet.

The home side had reserved one of their more convincing batting performances of the season for their final game, reaching 175 for two before collapsing to 210 for nine.

Noah Croes led the way, sharing stands of 80 for the first wicket with Tom de Grooth (41) and 91 for the third with Nic Smit (46) before, with partners and overs rapidly disappearing, he was run out for 97 just one over from the end, looking to retain the strike and give himself a chance of reaching his second Topklasse century.

Quick were handicapped by the withdrawal from their attack of Prathamesh Dake, suffering from a hamstring injury, after he had bowled only three and a half overs, and it was Jeroen Brand who was the main wicket-taker with three for 43.

Jay Bista took two for 22 in ten extremely tight overs while Edgar Schiferli, back in the top flight for the first time this season, bowled a double wicket maiden at the end.

Brandon Glover and Viv Kingma produced hostile spells when Quick replied – the latter’s marred by a succession of no-balls – and even Jay Bista was unable to get his side off to its usual commanding start.

Glover eventually had him caught behind for 34, and although Geert Maarten Mol (31) and Brand (26) almost doubled the total in a fourth-wicket partnership, once Philippe Boissevain and Nic Smit came into the attack Quick seemed to have no answer.

Boissevain finished with four for 20 and Smit three for 16 as Quick were dismissed for 143, a result which ensured that they would be playing in the Hoofdklasse next season.

Far removed from any anxieties about relegation, Excelsior ‘20 completed their campaign with a 59-run victory over VRA Amsterdam at Thurlede.

The Amsterdam side had, of course, spent the first half of the season in the wooden spoon position themselves, but a rally thereafter had taken them to safety.

Sunday saw their opponents stage a rally of their own, when having been reduced to 112 for six, they were able to almost double their total thanks to a somewhat improbable stand of 90 between Sohail Bhatti, promoted to number six and celebrating the occasion with a maiden half-century, and David Woutersen, who made 32.

Bhatti was eventually dismissed by Brandon Graber for 54, but it was Ben Cooper who was VRA’s most successful bowler with three for 51.

VRA were never really in the hunt as they tried to chase down Excelsior’s 221 for nine, and although Vikram Singh made 28, Cooper 35 and Peter Borren 40, they were dismissed for 162, Lorenzo Ingram taking three for 19 for the champions.

There was another rally and another maiden demi-centurion at Hazelaarweg, where VOC Rotterdam’s tail staged a considerably more remarkable comeback against HBS Craeyenhout.

Berend Westdijk, Zak Gibson and Julian de Mey had combined to reduce the Rotterdam side, who had perhaps celebrated their previous day’s T20 Cup final victory over the same opponents a little too thoroughly, to 92 for eight, but then Bobby Hanif, in company first with Corey Rutgers and then with David Mullett, managed to get them up to 183 before Sharn Gomes removed him for a defiant 56.

Hanif then removed danger-man Tobias Visée for just three, but although two wickets for Ramdas Upadhyaya had HBS briefly in trouble at 37 for three, a fourth-wicket partnership of 138 between Zac Elkin (77 not out from 66 deliveries) and Gomes (71 from 55) took the Craeyenhout side to within nine runs of victory, and they completed the six-wicket win with more than 25 overs to spare.

At Het Loopveld ACC retained third place on the table by beating Dosti United by 35 runs.

Saqib Zulfiqar top-scored with 67, sharing a third-wicket stand of 77 with Shirase Rasool (36) and then brother Sikander held the middle and lower order together as Kuldeep Diwan cemented his position as the league’s leading wicket-taker with four for 15, bringing his tally for the season to 36 in just 14 games, and Saber Zakhil chipped in with three for 29 as ACC were dismissed for 196.

Rahil Ahmed and Vinoo Tewarie gave Dosti a great start with an opening stand of 84, but once Tewarie was trapped in front by Saqib Zulfiqar the innings again subsided alarmingly.

Four ducks, three of them the work of Brady Barends, saw Dosti slump to 101 for five, and when Ahmed became Barends’ fourth victim and departed for 58, it was left to Diwan (26) and Arief Hoseinbaks (16) to carry on the battle.

The side was eventually dismissed for 161, Barends finishing with four for 34 and Saqib Zulfiqar claiming three for 29.

Rod Lyall 19/08/19

Excelsior ‘20 clinched their third national championship in four years – and the twelfth in the club’s history – at Sportpark Drieburg on Sunday, and they did it in utterly convincing fashion, bowling out a greatly weakened Dosti United side for 61 and going on to win by 7 wickets.

Tom Heggelman’s side had fought their way to the brink of the title in recent weeks by defending modest totals, but this time they took immediate command of a match after Vinoo Tewarie had won the toss and elected to bat.

The game had been reduced to 45 overs after a morning of rain, but Excelsior needed only 31 and a half overs to run through a Dosti team in which Kuldeep Diwan was the only survivor of four overseas players and which was further depleted by the absence of injured key allrounder Anees Davids.

Rens van Troost did much of the early damage, taking four wickets for 11 in nine overs, and then Heggelman himself ran through the tail to finish with three for 11.

Only three Dosti players – Rahil Ahmed, Saber Zakhil and Waheed Masood – managed to reach double figures, Masood top-scoring with an unbeaten 16.

There was a brief stumble when Excelsior replied, two quick wickets followed by a third when 23 were still needed, but Brenton Parchment and Lenert van Wyk saw their side safely home with more than 27 overs remaining.

HCC consolidated their position as runners-up by beating VOC Rotterdam at De Diepput, but they had some nervous moments as they chased a seemingly-straightforward target of 158 and finally won by just two wickets.

Olivier Klaus, who had earlier taken three for 32 as VOC were dismissed for 157, was the hero at the end, hitting a four and a six to steer his side to victory.

Corey Rutgers top-scored for VOC with 46, while Matt Hay and Bharat Itagi picked up two wickets apiece.

The latter pair then shared a half-century partnership for the sixth wicket after HCC were in difficulties at 89 for five, Itagi matching Rutgers’ score and Hay making 35.

VOC were kept in the game by a surprising spell of bowling from Scott Edwards, better known as the national team’s wicketkeeper, who removed both Itagi and Hay and claimed three for 14 despite Klaus having the final word.

Apart from Excelsior’s title-winning effort the most significant match of the day was at Nieuw Hanenburg, where relegation-threatened Quick Haag were at home to their nearest rivals, Sparta 1888.

Batting first, Quick were given a great start by Jay Bista, who hit a 35-ball 54 which included five fours and four sixes.

Bob van Gigch was almost as effective, making 58 from 43 balls with four fours and four sixes, and a third half-century, from Jeroen Brand, saw the home side to 218 for four at one stage.

But then Sparta skipper Joost Martijn Snoep struck back, taking four for 21, and with Mudassar Bukhari claiming four for 47 Quick subsided to 258 all out.

Sparta’s response began steadily, and the innings was largely held together by Andrew Fletcher, whose 92-ball 78 was his best score of the season, but with wickets falling at the other end he was unable to keep his side up with the required rate.

Then Bista, having previously had Atse Buurman caught behind, settled the issue, bowling Fletcher and taking four more wickets, three of them outstanding catches off his own bowling to finish with six for 30 as Sparta were all out for 194.

The most exciting finish of the day came in the Amsterdamse Bos, where it took a two off the final delivery to give Voorburg a three-wicket victory over VRA Amsterdam in a match they had seemed certain to lose.

They were chasing VRA’s total of 218 for seven in a game reduced to 43 overs, a total which the Amsterdammers owed very largely to opener Vikram Singh’s 51 and captain Peter Borren’s 72-ball 87 not out.

When Haseeb Gul Mia ripped through Voorburg’s vulnerable top order and Borren chipped in to reduce the visitors to 47 for four a VRA win appeared the likely outcome, but Nic Smit answered Borren’s innings with an unbeaten 87 of his own, taking just five more deliveries, and sharing a stand of 77 with Philippe Boissevain (37).
Boissevain fell with 31 still needed, and although Smit and Viv Kingma stood firm 16 were needed from Borren’s final over.

Smit took nine off the first three balls, and then, unperturbed, Kingma hit a succession of twos to see his side home by the narrowest of margins.

At De Diepput’s second ground ACC moved back into third place by virtue of a 15-run victory over HBS Craeyenhout, thanks to 57 by Brady Barends, promoted to open the innings, and a stand of 108 between brothers Saqib and Sikander Zulfiqar, who made 80 not out and 70 respectively.

This took ACC to 249 for four from their 44 overs in another rain-reduced game, and that proved just enough to hold off HBS, who had Tobias Visée back in the side but missed Wesley Barresi.

Aryan Kumar removed Visée for 17, and although Zac Elkin made 34 it was left to Navjit Singh to keep HBS’s hopes alive with his 59.

But then Devanshu Arya clinched the game for ACC by removing Singh and running through the rest of the batting, ending with four for 36. Sikander Zulfiqar took three for 29 and HBS were dismissed for 234 in the 40th over.

The highlights of next week’s final round will be the matches between Sparta 1888 and HCC at Sportpark Bermweg and between Voorburg and Quick Haag at Westvliet, the outcomes of which will determine which of Sparta and Quick will play in the Hoofdklasse next season.