Tag: HBS

Bertus de Jong & Rod Lyall 12/07/18

We’re very much over the hump now and heading rapidly toward the business end of the season with just six games to play, and the table has duly divided itself neatly in three. At the top end VOC, HBS and VRA remain very much in the running for a shot at the title, whilst defending champions Excelsior have joined former frontrunners Dosti and Sparta, together with HCC, as near-certain also-rans this time round, and Punjab, Quick and ACC look set for a nervy relegation battle.

BdJ: A win against table-toppers VOC Rotterdam might just keep Excelsior ‘20’s hopes alive another week, but given their recent run that’s the tallest of orders and the continued absence of batting linchpin and opening bowler James Hilditch won’t help their cause. VOC have looked all-but invulnerable at fortress Hazelaarweg, where a three-wicket win over VRA has been the closest they’ve come to defeat. Both Corey Rutgers and Max O’Dowd showed they were more than capable of pulling their weight for the frontrunners last week against Quick, both notching 80+ scores despite O’Dowd carrying a gluteal niggle and Rutgers a finger fractured six ways from Sunday. With skipper Pieter Seelaar’s imperious run of form showing no signs of stalling, an away match at VOC remains the toughest proposition in the league at this point.

RL: With several key acquisitions over the winter VOC were seen as a good championship bet before the campaign started, and while they took a little while to get into their stride – and despite some misfortunes with injuries – they have evolved into a formidable unit. They still have several big matches to play, and a few weeks ago this would have been one of them: after all, Excelsior were the last team to beat them, back on 19 May. But as VOC’s star has risen Excelsior’s has waned, and it would take a significant reversal of form for the defending champions to take the points back to Schiedam. The VOC new-ball pairing of Fred Klaassen and Pierce Fletcher is another of the Rotterdammers’ trump cards, and without Hilditch the Excelsior attack looks a lot less menacing.

BdJ: Should the title-holders spring a surprise, HBS Craeyenhout are currently best placed to take advantage as they head to meet bottom-placed Punjab Rotterdam at the Zomercomplex. On paper a match-up between the second-placed HBS and bottom-placed Punjab should be a fairly easy call, but then on paper the Crows’ top order ought to be delivering regular 300+ totals. Instead against HCC last week they clung on to defend 138 in an entirely unconvincing 15-run win, and Punjab’s opening pair of Stephan Myburgh and Ali Raza demonstrated that that sort of score would be unlikely to suffice come Sunday, racking up 149 runs in an unbroken partnership against Sparta at the traditionally bowler-friendly Bermweg. That said, last week HBS were facing a bowling attack featuring two of the league’s top five wicket-takers, whilst Punjab can boast not a single bowler in the top twenty, and indeed last week was the first time they managed to take all ten wickets. It will take a remarkable turnaround in form for Punjab to contain HBS’ battery of big hitters given the short boundaries at the Zomercomplex and one suspects delivering a third victory will be beyond even the powers of Raza and Myburgh.

RL: HBS, too, have settled into a winning pattern based on a powerful top five batsmen backed up by a well-balanced attack, and showed last week that even when the former fails to deliver the latter can defend a low total. Farshad Khan has been incisive since his return to the side, and together with Berend Westdijk and Wessel Coster heads a seam department capable of troubling any batting line-up. Punjab rely more on spin, and unless they can make early inroads into that HBS top order they may find themselves chasing an awful lot of leather. It is indeed hard to see Punjab upsetting one of the main title contenders, but Rohan Qadri has certainly made a difference to the side and the Rotterdammers know that every point is vital if they are to lift themselves away from the bottom of the table.

BdJ: Third placed VRA will be hoping for upsets in both the above-mentioned games, in which case a win against Sparta 1888 at the Bos could get them to second place and just one win behind VOC. The Amsterdammers’ home record may not inspire a huge amount of confidence, and continued questions over Viv Kingma’s fitness are also a concern, nonetheless they remain marginal favourites to take two points on the day. Though Sparta won the first encounter earlier in the season, the sort of cricket played at VRA is traditionally a different beast from what one sees at Bermweg. That said, the game is far from a foregone conclusion, with the hosts’ top order in patchy form and the bowling attack likely understrength. Though Sparta have stalled rather after an impressive early run, seamers Dost Muhammed and Mudassar Bukhari remain a dangerous combination, and Michael Pollard will doubtless be looking forward to a run out on the league’s best batting wicket. Though Sparta’s three consecutive defeats in the last three games have put them pretty much out of contention for the title, they remain more than capable as acting as spoilers for VRA’s hopes too.

RL: Even without Ben Cooper and Viv Kingma VRA were impressive against an injury-weakened ACC last week, with Quirijn Gunning and Haseeb Gul Mia doing the vital early damage and spinners Adeel Raja and Leon Turmaine doing the rest. If Eric Szwarczynski has definitely put his run of poor form behind him the batting, too, will have a more solid feel, and with some of the air having escaped from Sparta’s early-season balloon the home side should go into this game with plenty of confidence. Pollard is, obviously, a potential match-winner, and so too is Warren Bell, who has not so far had the impact in the Topklasse which he had during his side’s promotion-winning run last season. It should be a good tussle, with the encounter between former international team-mates Peter Borren and Mudassar Bukhari one to savour.

BdJ: Similarly HCC find themselves more-or-less safe but solidly out of contention following back-to-back losses, a position their opponents Quick Haag will nonetheless envy. Already weakened by retirements and departures, the Hanen have been plagued by injuries, illness and unavailability issues throughout the season, and now find themselves in real danger of relegation. Still groundless, they return to De Diepput for their nominal home match against their hosts again as underdogs, though HCC’s own shaky batting will give them some hope, as will the form of Quick overseas Jay Bista. The mumbaiker’s near-chanceless 124 against VOC last week consolidated his claim to the title of best player in the competition, and even the impressive collection of scalps dangling from the belts of Hidde Overdijk and Ali Ahmed Qasim are unlikely to faze him. The fitness of his fellow overseas Sean Davey remains doubtful, however, and as events last week again demonstrated it’s pretty tough to win a Topklasse match on your own.

RL: This is probably the toughest game to tip about this week, given the evident vulnerability of both sides, especially with the bat. Overdijk and Qasim can be a very effective pairing, as their demolition of Sparta demonstrated, and the dismissal of HBS for 138 should give Quick – and any other visitors to De Diepput – pause. Bista is obviously a key factor, and HCC will be hoping that Ryan Ninan, who has had a lean season so far, will rise to the challenge and have at least a great an impact on this match. They also need Tonny Staal and Bryce Street to deliver with the bat, while Quick will be looking to the experience of the likes of Geert Maarten Mol and Lesley Stokkers to give Bista the support he needs. If I were going to break the unanimity of this week’s predictions this is where I would do it, but on balance I tend to go with m’colleague and predict a home win.

BdJ: It will be a similar situation at Drieburg where hosts Dosti-United are safely ensconced in the mid-table whilst visitors ACC are barely more than one defeat away from the wooden spoon spot. A washout against Excelsior means ACC are just a hair above Quick on points average, but nonetheless they’ll be desperate to put some more distance between themselves and their relegation rivals. Though likely the more motivated of the two teams, they remain underdogs when they head across the Amstel, especially if they are again unable to field a full complement of Zulfiqars. With Dosti coming off the back of a comfortable win against (an admittedly under-strength) Excelsior and Taru Kohli still in flying form with the bat and now in the wickets as well, two points will take some getting at Drieburg.

RL: ACC have been the Jekyll and Hyde of this season’s Topklasse, and much will depend on which of the two incarnations turns up at Sportpark Drieburg. A young and inexperienced team, they are desperately dependent on a good start, and with Anees Davids back in the Dosti line-up the home side are well placed to deny it to them. Their own top order has also been inconsistent, especially on the rare occasions when Kohli has failed to deliver, but ACC’s bowling is their weaker department, and they really missed the injured Sikander Zulfiqar against VRA last week. But if Richardt Frenz and the Zulfiqars who do play stay around for a while, Dosti may need to be at their best to take the points.

BdJ’s tips: VOC, HBS, VRA, HCC, Dosti.
RL’s tips: VOC, HBS, VRA, HCC, Dosti.

Bertus de Jong & Rod Lyall 29/06/18

With six games scheduled for the coming weekend, attention turns to the mid-table for the eleventh round of Topklasse matches where several clubs will be looking to distance themselves from a looming relegation battle, or face must-win matches to maintain their title hopes.

BdJ: For Dosti-United the former is likely the principal concern, having sunk back into the lower half of the table after a bright start to the season. They have two chances this weekend to climb back up toward relative safety, the first a rescheduled 7th-round match against Punjab Rotterdam, currently languishing at the bottom of the pile with just a solitary win.

Dosti will start as favourites at home, but their recent slide has highlighted their dependence on league lead run-scorer Taru Kohli to post winning totals. They themselves have managed to avoid defeat only once this season without a Kohli century, and he has gone scoreless in their last two games. Yet against a Punjab attack that has yet to bowl anyone out this season another ton looks at least as likely as another duck and with three other bats having racked up 200+ runs and Mohammad Hafeez leading the wicket-taking table the Amsterdammers are hardly a one man band.

While their opponents can take heart from the return of Stephan Myburgh, the Netherlands opener is still not fully fit and may not play both games at the weekend. And Punjab have barely looked competitive without him. Myburgh remains their lead run-scorer despite having sat out four games, and despite showing some admirable fight against Excelsior last week it’s hard to argue Punjab haven’t earned their place at the bottom of the table.

RL: Having pushed Excelsior all the way last Sunday Punjab may go into this game with a certain degree of hope – if not confidence – despite their lowly position in the table. Ashan Bamunusinghe has been a slightly surprising keystone of both their batting line-up and their attack, but he and Barend Vorster have received too little support from the rest of the team. Myburgh’s battle for fitness is obviously a continuing concern, and against a Dosti outfit which is capable of much more than they have shown in recent weeks the visitors are likely to struggle.

BdJ: Punjab’s real four-pointer will come on Sunday however, when they face their nearest rivals for the wooden spoon ACC at the Zomercomplex. ACC currently have a 2 point lead over the Rotterdammers, though that may not be the case by the time they meet. Though ACC’s lamentable lack of bench strength was pointed out as a weakness before the season began, but few would have picked them as relegation contenders. They were exposed again by HBS last week however, losing by a calamitous 173 runs as they collapsed to 62 all-out. The promotion of Richardt Frenz to partner Rehmat Zulfiqar at the top of the order has paid off on occasion, but the middle order remains fragile and the tail long.

Whether Punjab have the bowling to capitalise is questionable of course, but likewise ACC’s attack has lacked for penetration at times. Devon Botha has had a creditable debut season thus far but is arguably rather wasted on Dutch wickets, and should Myburgh play one suspects he’ll enjoy himself. Given that two of the three wins these teams have between them have been built on big opening partnerships, and there’s little reason to expect different come Sunday.

RL: ACC provided Punjab with their sole victory so far, when Myburgh and Raza shared a big opening partnership at Het Loopveld back in May. Neither has repeated that form in such a sustained way since, although in the former’s case that is scarcely surprising. Both teams show the shallowness of the talent pool at the highest domestic level, raising legitimate questions about the wisdom of the ten-team Topklasse format. Yet the best of the ACC squad (most of them named Zulfiqar) would grace any team, and they have been much more prolific with the bat in recent weeks – last Sunday’s dramatic collapse against HBS excepted. This is a crucial match for both teams, and even more a must-win occasion for Punjab than for their visitors.

BdJ: Also still in the relegation mix are Quick Haag, who will be Dosti’s second opponents this weekend. If Dosti have looked dependent on Kohli thus far, Quick have been no less so on Jay Bista, who remains the only Quick bat to have passed 200 runs this season. Another side that might be said to be in a transitional phase, Quick have tested a number of youth and former second team players this season, but their depth has thus far proved as lacking as that of ACC. Though seamer Josh Davey has proved a solid signing for them and Bista’s current 3rd spot in the run aggregates probably undersells his talents, the two overseas have lacked any consistent support from the rest of the side who, Geert Maarten Mol apart, have looked an underperforming team that wasn’t too strong in the first place.

RL: This, too, is a vital match for both sides, with Quick just one win clear of ACC and Dosti currently only just ahead of Quick on points average. A mid-table position beckons for the winner, but the loser may face a nerve-wracking battle in the weeks ahead. Quick have indeed looked vulnerable for much of the season, and while a late rally spared at least some of their blushes against VRA last Sunday the collapse of the top and middle order confirms that concern. The attack, too, lacks bite and the variation provided in different ways by Henk-Jan Mol and Asief Hoseinbaks last year, and undoubtedly Dosti have the batsmen in Vinoo Tewarie, Kohli, Rahil Ahmed and Anees Davids to take full advantage.

: The league’s new front-runner VOC Rotterdam meanwhile will take on the mercurial HCC at Hazelaarweg, looking to consolidate their place at the top of the table. Though HCC will be coming off the back of a crunching win over erstwhile front-runners Sparta, the odds are against them taking two points back from Rotterdam. Given the traditionally slow and spin-friendly conditions at Hazelaarweg the Hagenaars’ principal match winners Ali Ahmed Qasim and Hidde Overdijk are unlikely to be at their most effective, whilst the conditions are expected to play in favour of VOC’s spinners Umar Baker and current MVP favourite Pieter Seelaar. Even without Max O’Dowd, Ahsan Malik and probably Corey Rutgers, the hosts head into the game with the wind in their sails and the bookies’ backing.

RL: If m’colleague’s reading of the Hazelaarweg conditions is correct, then the influence of Ryan Ninan on this match should not be under-estimated. He bowled with great control last week while Ali Ahmed Qasim was creating havoc at the other end, and is likely to find the Rotterdam environment much more to his liking. VOC’s batting was in early trouble against Dosti last Sunday, and they too needed a vigorously wagging tail to set an adequate target. I think this may be a closer game than many expect, and while the strength of their batting leads me to favour VOC on balance, it would not surprise me if the leadership of the table had again changed hands by Sunday evening.

BdJ: Tougher to call will be VRA’s return match against defending champions Excelsior ‘20, who travel to the Bos without the usual benefit of a well-established winning habit. The Schiedammers looked altogether unconvincing against bottom-placed Punjab last week, clinging on for a 19-run win to break an all-but unprecedented 2-game losing streak. Nonetheless Excelsior’s lower-middle order again showed an encouraging resilience after the bedrock pair of Ingram and Hilditch both fell cheaply, suggesting that containing or removing the pair remains a necessary but not sufficient condition for besting the title-holders.

VRA certainly have the attack to do it, though the continued side-lining of Vivian Kingma means skipper Van den Burg does not have quite the flexibility he might like should anyone have an off-day. Moreover, off-days have been rather par for the course in the VRA middle-order of late, which has yet to really live up to its potential thus far. In short, this looks like anyone’s game, and two points will likely go to whoever underperforms the least.

RL: Another of the three top-six encounters which this week’s draw offers, this match-up of two clubs who have won twenty championships between them in the past 26 years has plenty of history behind it as well as a fascinating immediate context. Excelsior struggled to reach a modest target of 177 when the sides met on 10 May, owing their victory to a fine innings from Hilditch, and neither has been completely convincing in recent weeks – or, in VRA’s case, all season. There’s an opportunity for one of the big guns – Ingram or Hilditch, Cooper, Borren or Gunning – to stamp their influence on the game, but the result may well depend on how much support they receive from the rest of their team.

BdJ: The round’s final game pits a resurgent HBS against former table-toppers Sparta 1888, who have struggled to maintain their early momentum into the mid-season. The Crows have not lost a game at home since their defeat at the hands of HCC in the third round, when Ali Qasim ran riot for the first time, and though in Dost Mohammad and Mudassar Bukhari Sparta have seamers capable of doing a similar job on HBS’ explosive top order, now that all four of Gomes, Barresi, Visée and Morgan have runs under their belt the chance of such a repetition looks more remote. Sparta have some big hitters of their own of course in Pollard and Bell, not to mention the belligerent Bukhari and Atse Buurman down the order also capable of clearing the ropes, so it’s tough to say what a safe first innings score might be.

RL: Sparta will return to Den Haag with the shadow of last week’s collapse hanging over them, but they will also remember the initial sting of Bukhari, Mohammad and Bell and the way they fought back to dismiss HCC for a fairly modest total. Especially at Craeyenhout, HBS has the most imposing top six in the competition, and Sparta’s five seamers and spinner Faisal Iqbal will need to be at their absolute best if they are to contain them. Warren Bell was very unlucky last week, and if he and Michael Pollard are able to take advantage of the Craeyenhout outfield we could be in for some prolific scoring, and the bowlers could be in for a tough time.

Bertus de Jong’s tips: Dosti, Dosti, VOC, VRA, Punjab, HBS.

Rod Lyall’s tips: Dosti, Dosti, VOC, Excelsior, ACC, HBS.