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Rod Lyall 27/05/19

ACC suffered their first defeat of the season at Thurlede on Saturday, going down to Excelsior ’20 by 47 runs, while HBS hung on against a late challenge by VRA in the Amsterdamse Bos to win by 18 runs and move clear at the top of the table.

Winning the toss and electing to bat, Excelsior ‘20 reached 221 for seven, thanks to a third-wicket partnership of 97 between Lorenzo Ingram and Brenton Parchment.

ACC pace man Brady Barends removed Roel Verhagen, restored to an opening slot after returning from injury, in his first over, and then came back to break the Ingram-Parchment stand by trapping Parchment in front after he had compiled an invaluable 45.

Helped by an aggressive cameo by Joost Kroesen, who made a rapid 22, Ingram went on to post his sixth Topklasse century. He faced 136 deliveries for his 102, including eight fours and three sixes, and when he departed just before the close he had seen his side safely past the 200 mark.

Skipper Saqib Zulfiqar cashed in in the final overs and took four for 46, but it was Barends who bowled with hostility throughout for figures of two for 47 and the spinners Devanchu Arya and Anis Raza, who conceded 29 and 30 respectively in their 10-over spells, who were the most impressive of the ACC attack.

ACC were soon in trouble when they replied, slumping to 47 for four, and when Sikander Zulfiqar, having made 27, was run out with the total on 88 their cause was effectively lost.

Raza held the innings together as best he could and reached his first Topklasse half-century to finish with an unbeaten 67, but he eventually ran out of partners, the innings closing on 174 in the 48th over. Parchment and Tom Heggelman claimed three wickets apiece for the Schiedammers.

HBS Craeyenhout again posted the highest total of the day, their 273 for two dominated by a stand of 160 for the second wicket by Zac Elkin and Sharn Gomes.

Gomes contributed 68, while Elkin batted throughout the innings for an unbeaten 116, made from 157 deliveries with six fours and three sixes.

Elkin’s knock was matched by that of VRA’s Vikram Singh, who at the age of 16 years 136 days became the youngest-ever centurion in the Dutch top flight, eclipsing the two-week old record set by ACC’s Shirase Rasool, who had been 22 days older when he performed the feat.

Unlike Elkin, however, Singh was unable to find someone to share a really decisive partnership: Peter Borren made 32 and skipper Emile van den Burg 21, but when Singh was eventually bowled by Wesley Barresi for 102, made from 147 balls with ten fours, VRA were still well adrift at 183 for six.

But keeper Mitch Lees was still there, and with some support from the tail he made a hard-hitting 51, hitting four sixes and bringing his team frustratingly close to what had been an extremely imposing target.

Barresi was the most successful of the HBS bowlers with three for 56, and the new-ball pairing of Berend Westdijk and Zak Gibson collected two wickets each.

HCC kept pace with the leading group by cruising to an eight-wicket victory over Quick Haag at Nieuw Hanenburg, with skipper Tonny Staal hitting an unbeaten 86 to enable his side to chase down a modest Quick total of 169.

Quick were strengthened by the advent of Namibian international Jean Bredenkamp, who played for them in 2017 and who anchored their innings with 55.

He did not receive much support, however, Quick’s top scorers otherwise being once again Geert Maarten Mol with 29 and Thijs van Schelven with 26, while for HCC Bryce Street took three for 44 and Ali Ahmed Qasim, Hidde Overdijk and Bharat Itagi claimed two wickets each.

Itagi and Staal then got HCC off to a lightning start, putting on 82 in just over twelve overs, and Street helped Staal maintain the momentum with a 37-ball 40 which took the visitors to the brink of victory.

Finishing the job in just 26.2 overs HCC did their net run rate a power of good in a season when that might just be important in sorting out the table at the end of August.

While still playing some way below what they are almost certainly capable of, Dosti United were decidedly too strong forSparta 1888 at Sportpark Bermweg.

Taruwar Kohli (36) and Amitoze Singh (54) contributed over half of the visitors’ total of 174, with Max Hoornweg again the principal wicket-taker for Sparta with four for 41. Andrew Fletcher backed him up well with three for 35.

Then Kuldeep Diwan (three for 19), Kohli (two for 12) and Anees Davids (two for 18) claimed seven Sparta wickets as Dosti ran through the home side’s batting, dismissing them for 113.

Atse Buurman again provided much of the resistance, top-scoring with 29, and it took a late rally by Joost Martijn Snoep and Manminder Singh to get Sparta’s total into three figures.

Defending champions VOC Rotterdam recorded their first win of the season at Westvliet, where Voorburg again performed poorly with the bat and collapsed to 135 all out.

It would have been even worse without a spirited knock of 44 from Viv Kingma, who came in with his team on 75 for six and almost immediately lost Noah Croes, who had made 31.

Kingma got Voorburg to 135 almost single-handedly, dominating a last-wicket stand of 47 with Stef Mulder.

VOC’s attack was reinforced by the inclusion of Belgian international Noman Kamawi, who took three for 12.

The Rotterdammers made heavy weather of their chase, with Kingma grabbing three quick wickets to reduce them to 48 for four, and it took some dogged batting from Pieter Seelaar (26) and Dirk van Baren (22) to get them over the line.

After an impressive opening-day victory promoted side Voorburg have now lost three on the trot, and unless their batsmen can reverse their current slump the Voorburgers could find themselves in a battle to avoid a speedy return to the Hoofdklasse.

Rod Lyall 20/05/19

The bowlers were back in control in Saturday’s third-round matches with only one side managing to get past 200, and Sparta 1888 and Quick Haag, previously winless, sprung surprises by beating Excelsior ’20 and defending champions VOC Rotterdam respectively.

The biggest upset came at Thurlede, where Sparta successfully defended a meagre total of 189, bowling the previously unbeaten home side out for 146.

Star of the show for Sparta was young Max Hoornweg – incidentally the grandson of former international pace man Ruud Onstein – who finished with career-best figures of seven for 36.

Hoornweg reduced Excelsior to 43 for three, including the key wickets of Lorenzo Ingram and Brenton Parchment, and then returned to clean up the tail.

Tim Etman again top-scored for Excelsior with a patient 45, but of the later batsmen only skipper Tom Heggelman with 31 showed any real sign of resistance.

Earlier, opener Garnett Tarr had led the way for Sparta with an 81-ball 61, the highest score of the match, while Andrew Fletcher showed the first signs of what he is capable of in making 32. Sohail Bhatti was the most successful of the Excelsior bowlers with three for 22, and there were two apiece for Heggelman and Ingram.

If VOC might have counted themselves a little unlucky to have been narrowly beaten by Dosti on the season’s opening day, there could be no doubts about their defeat by Quick Haag at Hazelaarweg on Saturday.

Their batting was unable to get going against a Quick attack still awaiting the arrival of its Indian reinforcements, and collapsed to 168 all out in just 38.3 overs.

Namibian Pieter Groenewald took three for 41, debutant Daniel Mason two for 34 and Thijs van Schelven two for 16 as VOC’s batsmen, despite mostly getting a start, were unable to build a competitive score.

Lesley Stokkers began the chase aggressively, making a 52-ball 45, and although they lost four wickets along the way Quick, judging the tempo perfectly, completed the win with more than five overs to spare, Rupert Young following up his century last week with a measured 34.

The old adage that there’s a big difference between an outstanding team on paper and an outstanding side on the field was vindicated twice this week.

At Het Loopveld Voorburg demonstrated, to their own chagrin, that last Saturday’s collapse against Excelsior was not an isolated event by falling apart even more comprehensively against a rampant ACC.

Put in to bat, the visitors lost skipper Tom de Grooth – one of four victims for ACC keeper Jean Marais – in the opening over before they had a run on the board, and Brady Barends went on to claim four more wickets to finish with five for 19 as Voorburg subsided to 84 all out.

Only Noah Croes (18) and Philippe Boissevain (20) reached double figures, while for ACC Devanshu Arya was also among the wickets with three for 15.

The Voorburg attack did their best to stage a spirited fightback, picking up six wickets as ACC chased down their modest target, but with Shirase Rasool compiling a mature 30 the home side made it within 25 overs, further improving their net run rate in the process.

In what was in many ways the most absorbing match of the day, HBS defeated Dosti United in a game of fluctuating fortunes, but it was the failure of Dosti’s threatening batting line-up to master the home side’s attack which produced a 66-run HBS victory.

Dosti’s bowlers, especially the spinners, had done well to hold the Crows to a total of 220 after they had been well placed on 119 for two after 27 overs, with Asief Hoseinbaks, Mahesh Hans and Kuldeep Diwan picking up seven wickets between them.

Although Diwan collected three wickets it was Hoseinbaks’ eight-over spell for figures of two for 25 which prevented the powerful HBS batting line-up from getting into top gear after Tobias Visée had given his side its usual rollicking start with a 21-ball 33.

Zac Elkin top-scored with 45 before hitting a return catch to Hoseinbaks, while Sharn Gomes contributed 39.

Backed up by outstanding fielding the HBS spinners, Wesley Barresi and Julian de Mey, also built the pressure when Dosti replied, and with five wickets down for 57 and Taruwar Kohli and Amitoze Singh among those who had come and gone, the Dosti cause was effectively lost.

Diwan played a defiant hand for his 37, but as he began to run out of partners he became one of several Dosti batsmen to hole out at deep midwicket, and the innings eventually closed on 154.

De Mey took three for 34, and there were two wickets apiece for Zak Gibson, Farshad Khan and debutant Benno Boddendijk.

VRA’s unhappy start to the season continued at De Diepput, where they lost to HCC by seven wickets after having been dismissed for 189.

The match was a personal triumph for HCC’s Bharat Itagi, who took three for 30 in the VRA innings and then guided his side to the brink of victory with 90.

Itagi shared a 103-run partnership for the third wicket with Bryce Street, who went on to complete the task and finish with an unbeaten 59.

The VRA total owed much to the contribution of former international Eric Szwarczynski, who made 61 before being run out, while Peter Borren, who had earlier become VRA’s all-time leading run-scorer, claimed two of the three HCC wickets to fall.

After an initial defeat by HBS HCC are beginning to look like a well-balanced outfit, and with Hidde Overdijk and Olivier Klaus also picking up key wickets on Saturday they can look forward with some confidence.