News

Rod Lyall 02/06/19

Voorburg gained their first victory since the season’s opening round on Saturday and did so in style, bringing to an end the winning run of leaders HBS Craeyenhout. That gave an opening to ACC, who returned to the top of the table by virtue of their defeat of VOC Rotterdam.

After winning the toss and electing to bat at Westvliet, HBS Craeyenhout’s powerful batting line-up soon came under pressure from a disciplined Voorburg attack, and were dismissed for a modest 147.

Most of the top order got a start but then succumbed when they tried to force the pace, and it was Julian de Mey, batting at seven and coming in at 91 for five, who top-scored with an unbeaten 25 and managed to give the total even a hint of respectability.

The wickets were shared among the Voorburg bowlers, with Viv Kingma – who removed the threatening Tobias Visée –, Stef Mulder, Clayton Floyd and Philippe Boissevain claiming two apiece.

The visitors had suffered a setback before the start when allrounder Ferdi Vink injured an ankle and had to go to hospital for an x-ray; it could not be blamed for the HBS performance, but it will have had a disruptive effect on the side, and it meant that the attack was one bowler short.

Wesley Barresi and Zak Gibson removed the Voorburg openers, but a fourth-wicket stand of 63 between Nic Smit and Floyd took the game away from HBS, and although Floyd departed for 32 with 16 still needed, Smit saw his side to a five-wicket victory and ended on an unbeaten 56.

ACC took full advantage of the HBS defeat with a 4-wicket victory over VOC Rotterdam at Het Loopveld which returned them to the top of the table on net run rate, but they did so with just three deliveries to spare and survived some tricky moments along the way.

They began well enough, with Brady Barends ripping through the Rotterdammers’ top order in the first ten overs, but they were held up by a fourth-wicket stand of 85 between Max O’Dowd and Pieter Seelaar which put the visitors on course for a challenging total.

Skipper Saqib Zulfiqar eventually removed Seelaar for 32, and when O’Dowd went soon afterwards, having made a 129-ball 95 which included nine fours and three sixes, the VOC tail provided little resistance and the side were all out for 183.

Barends finished with four for 32, and Aryan Kumar took three for 38.

ACC’s openers Saqib and Rehmat Zulfiqar both went for golden ducks, and when Shirase Rasool went for five the home side were struggling at 18 for three.

But Sikander Zulfiqar, assisted first by Jean Marais and then by Anis Raza, turned the innings around, and after Raza’s departure, having shared in an 80-run partnership for the fifth wicket, Jamieson Mulready supported Zulfiqar to within eight runs of the target with two overs left.

Pacing the denouement with great calm, Zulfiqar hit the winning boundary off the third ball of the final over and finished on 99 not out, made from 125 deliveries with nine fours, just missing out on what would have been a thoroughly deserved century.

HCC missed an opportunity to keep pace with the leaders when they went down to a 72-run defeat by Excelsior ‘20 at Thurlede, which leaves both sides now one game behind ACC and HBS.

Lorenzo Ingram was again the mainstay of the Excelsior batting, making 62 in a total of 218 for nine, with Branton Parchment contributing 26 and Joost Kroesen 32.

But with HCC’s South African debutant Raafieq Isaacs taking four for 43 the Schiedammers collapsed from 181 for three to 202 for eight in the space of four overs, giving HCC a less imposing target than might at one point have been feared.

Bharat Itagi and Adam Wiffen gave them a good start with an opening stand of 59, but the Excelsior combination of Sohail Bhatti and Ingram struck back, and they too suffered a rapid collapse, slumping in eight overs from 84 for one to 103 for six.

Hidde Overdijk did his best to manage the tail but when he was last out the total was still only 146, Bhatti finishing with four for 27 and Ingram three for 32.

Quick Haag demonstrated that with the addition of Jay Bista and Prathamesh Dake they would be a force to be reckoned with in the latter part of the season by beating Dosti United by 30 runs at Nieuw Hanenburg.

It was New Zealander Rupert Young, though, who top-scored in their total of 177 with a solid 50, sharing a 62-run partnership for the second wicket with Geert Maarten Mol (31).

Anees Davids and Taruwar Kohli  were the most successful of Dosti’s bowlers with three for 23 and three for 29 respectively.

Dosti’s reply hinged almost entirely on Kohli, who only received really significant support from Kuldeep Diwan (26).

Diwan’s dismissal by Dake to make it 138 for six left a huge burden on Kohli’s shoulders, and although he made a patient, responsible 57 the wickets kept falling at the other end, and when he was last out the total was still only 147.

Dake’s three for 26 laid the foundation for Quick’s win, but the finishing blows fell to Mol, who took the last three wickets and finished with three for 29, despite having bowled no fewer than 13 wides.

The most exciting finish of the day came at Sportpark Bermweg, where Sparta 1888 held on despite a heroic fightback by VRA’s Peter Borren to win by just four runs with eight balls remaining.

Sparta had seemed to have the game in the bag when, chasing their total of 197 for eight, VRA were 136 for eight.

But Tom Long supported the former national skipper in a ninth-wicket stand of 48, and even after he was bowled by Andrew Fletcher Borren continued to pick off the runs.

Just six were needed off the last two overs, but then Sparta captain Joost Martijn Snoep had Borren caught by Usman Saleem for 51 and the innings finished on 193. Snoep had match-winning figures of five for 27.

Earlier, Garnett Tarr and Mudassar Bukhari had laid the foundation of Sparta’s total with a third-wicket stand of 73; Tarr was dismissed for 41, while Bukhari made a 121-ball 67, while there were two wickets apiece for Brandon Graber, Ben Cooper and Leon Turmaine.