Asides

Rod Lyall 07/06/2023

With the national squad now ensconced in southern Africa, prospects for the T20 Cup will become clearer this weekend, with a further eight matches scheduled.

The effect of the efflux will be most apparent at Westvliet on Saturday, where Voorburg will be without at least six first-choice players when they take on first HCC, who won both their matches last week, and then Sparta 1888 in the day’s one triple-header.

The damage is spread pretty evenly across the batting and bowling, although Voorburg are fortunate in having a decent crop of reserves to step up in this situation: Mees van Vliet will presumably assume a greater role in the pace attack, but he could be supported by the experience of Stef Mulder and Ali Ahmad Qasim, as well as by Floris de Lange and Bas de Leede’s younger brother Tom, all of whom have been taking wickets in the Hoofdklasse for the club’s second team.

It may be harder to replace Michael Levitt and Noah Croes, both of whom have been called up for the national side, but Laurens Boissevain did not look out of place last week, and he may be joined in the middle order by Nirav Kulkarni.

Then again, neither Sybrand Engelbrecht nor Karl Nieuwoudt played in the defeat of VOC last week, and they would make a huge difference to the balance of the side were they to return.

HCC, by comparison, will be missing only Clayton Floyd, and while his wicket-taking capacity will be absent, Daniel Doram will still be there, and Jan-Wieger Overdijk slotted in effectively in last week’s games.

Even without Jonathan Vandiar HCC displayed plenty of hitting power, Ratha Alphonse proving much more uninhibited in the shorter format, and with Tonny Staal coming back into form and young Teun Kloppenburg finding his feet at this level, the Lions will give the reconstructed Voorburg a severe test.

The same probably applies to Sparta, who will be especially keen to expunge any memories of their 50-over nightmare at Westvliet a couple of weeks ago.

Their match against ACC last Saturday could have gone either way, and with their three overseas players, Ferguson, Tarr and Clark at the top of the order and the explosive Ali Raza to follow, they remain a force to be reckoned with.

Mudassar Bukhari may be out of the attack at the moment, but they still have Ahsan Malik and Khalid Ahmadi, and they are perfectly capable of upsetting either their hosts or HCC, whom they will take on the middle game of the three.

Having squeezed home against Sparta, ACC will host a double-header at Het Loopveld on Saturday, their opponents first VOC Rotterdam and then HBS Craeyenhout.

The Amsterdammers may not have anyone in the Dutch side, but they will be without captain-coach Heino Kuhn, who has been responsible for much of the side’s improvement this season and who will be in Zimbabwe as part of the coaching staff.

He leaves a sizeable gap, but it’s perhaps not as great as that left by Scott Edwards and Max O’Dowd, who have contributed such a large share of the Rotterdammers’ runs in recent seasons.

VOC are fortunate to have the experienced Corey Rutgers waiting in the wings to join the prolific Lane Berry, Tim de Kok and the rest in the first team, but quite apart from the loss of two dominant figures from the batting line-up, the bowling remains a matter of some concern.

That is even more true of HBS, who fielded a remarkably young attack against VRA and Punjab last week; on the whole, Elmar Boendermaker, Azzam Khan and Joris van Oosterom stood up pretty well to the pounding they took, and they can only have learned from the experience.

The Crows will be without skipper Wesley Barresi for the rest of their campaign, but with Tayo Walbrugh back to his best form and allrounder Nic Adendorff assuming a steadily-increasing role with both bat and ball, they will be keen to bounce back quickly against ACC, and then against VOC, whom they will meet at the Hazelaarweg on Sunday.

With two wins under their belts, Punjab Rotterdam will welcome Excelsior ‘20 back to Het Zomercomplex on Saturday, albeit without Saqib Zulfiqar.

That still leaves them plenty of firepower with both bat and ball, and although they were too strong for Salland last week, this Excelsior side looks to be less well adapted to the T20 format than to the 50-over game, where their season so far has already been disappointing enough.

That said, it would be dangerous to write off any team with Lorenzo Ingram in it, and Punjab will need to get him early.

Punjab, of course, have match-winners of their own, with Shoaib Minhas and Mohsin Riaz both capable of piling on quick runs, not to mention the all-round capabilities of Sikander Zulfiqar.

Roel Verhagen, though, has been in good form with the bat since his return from injury, and with Stan van Troost now well established behind the stumps, Verhagen chose last Saturday to reveal previously-unsuspected talents with the ball.

The other one-off game on Saturday sees VRA Amsterdam take on Salland in the Amsterdamse Bos, but they will do so without Vikram Singh, whose unbeaten 161 was an outstanding feature of the opening day, Teja Nidamanuru and Aryan Dutt.

It remains to be seen whether VRA have the resources in reserve to cover these losses, as well as that of the injured Shirase Rasool, but they could scarcely have chosen a better way to find out than against a Salland side which looked thoroughly unconvincing in both their games at De Diepput last Saturday.

Aaditt Jain and Zamaan Khan both slotted into the side encouragingly at Craeyenhout, but the top of the batting may prove to be somewhat threadbare in the absence of the three internationals and Rasool, even if Johan Smal returns to a place in the top three.

For Salland, it’s always a question of how many of their German contingent are available, and although Talha Ahmed Khan performed solidly against Excelsior and HCC, there can be no doubt that they look a much weaker outfit without Venkat Ganesan and Sahir Naqash.

My (still very tentative) picks: HCC, Punjab; HCC, VRA, ACC; Voorburg, ACC; HBS.

Rod Lyall 04/06/2023

The undoubted highlight of an absorbing day’s cricket as the Topklasse T20 Cup got under way on Saturday was an astonishing innings from VRA’s Vikram Singh, whose unbeaten 64-ball 161 enabled his side to chase down an imposing HBS total of 223 for four.

Singh brought up his century from just 37 deliveries, almost certainly the fastest in the 17-year history of the Dutch T20 competition, and his complete innings was without question the highest individual score, eclipsing Tobias Visée’s 139 not out for HBS against HCC in 2020.

He struck 19 fours and eleven sixes, completely dominating the innings from the start, hitting six fours off Kyle Klein’s first over.

His partners were essentially spectators from 20 metres away, although he received valuable support from Teja Nidamanuru (24) in a third-wicket stand of 85.

The HBS innings had been more of a team effort, openers Reece Mason (52) and Tim Drummond (72) getting their side off to a good start, and Wesley Barresi (53 not out) and Nic Adendorff (32 not out) adding 72 in an unbroken fifth-wicket partnership.

The extraordinary uncertainties of cricket were then illustrated when VRA took on Punjab in the second game of the Craeyenhout triple-header, when Singh, whose three wickets for 26 had helped his side dismiss their opponents for 154, fell to Mohammad Shafiq off the second ball of the VRA reply.

Zamaan Khan made 49 as the Amsterdammers pursued what in the context seemed a fairly modest target, but Punjab’s bowlers maintained the pressure, Shafiq finishing with three for 31, and VRA went into the final over still needing seven for victory.

Sikander Zulfiqar was able to restrict the scoring to four singles, and with Leon Turmaine run out trying to get Johan Smal back on strike, Punjab held on to win by two runs, Smal finishing unbeaten on 37.

Punjab then made it two out of two with a 12-run victory over HBS, a result which was made to seem closer than it really was by a spirited attack in the closing overs from Kyle Klein and Julian de Mey, who added 51 from the last three.

53 from Shoaib Minhas, backed up by 44 from Mohsin Riaz and 41 not out from Sikander Zulfiqar, had enabled Punjab to reach 207 for six against the young HBS attack, and although Mason again gave his side a good start with 42 and Tayo Walbrugh chipped in with a 30-ball 45, at 143 for six HBS had seemed to be heading for a thumping defeat before Klein and De Mey came together to narrow the margin.

If the batters were generally in the ascendant at Craeyenhout, the balance between bat and ball was more even in the other triple header, at De Diepput, and conditions may actually have favoured the bowlers.

The HCC attack certainly found that to be the case after Boris Gorlee had put Excelsior ‘20 in in the opening game, with the spinners Daniel Doram and Clayton Floyd conceding only 16 and 17 respectively in their four-over spells.

Roel Verhagen’s 23-ball 37 was the best effort in Excelsior’s innings, Stan van Troost contributing 31, but HCC’s chief destroyer was Hidde Overdijk, who picked up three wickets in the final over to finish with five for 25 as Excelsior ended on 155 for eight.

The Schiedammers’ bowlers were unable to create the same problems, Ratha Alphonse and Tonny Staal putting on 133 for the first wicket before Staal fell to Umar Baker for 51, and Alphonse went on to make an unbeaten, 56-ball 82 as HCC won by nine wickets with eight deliveries to spare.

Excelsior’s attack was much more effective against Salland, with Baker claiming four for 15 and fellow-spinners Lorenzo Ingram and Verhagen taking the remaining three as, with two run-outs, Salland were bowled out for 136.

Talha Khan’s 58 was the only substantial performance in the Salland innings, Victor Lubbers the next best with 22.

Again, the chase proved much easier, Verhagen (62 from 45 deliveries) and Tim Etman (50 not out from 43) adding 109 for the second wicket, and Excelsior won by eight wickets.

It was HCC’s turn to struggle with the bat when they faced Salland in the third game, and it took Hidde Overdijk’s 31-ball 47 to get them to 145 before they were all out, Ruan du Plessis taking three for 21 for the visitors.

But that turned out to be enough, Talha Khan’s 20 again Salland’s top score as they were bowled out for just 111; after Doram had taken two for 9 in three overs and Jan-Wieger Overdijk two for 20 in four, Patient Charumbira and Daniel Crowley cleaned up the middle and lower order, taking three for 15 and three for 8 respectively.

Leaders in the 50-over Topklasse, Voorburg made the most of the presence of five of their soon-to-be-Zimbabwe-bound internationals, and skittled VOC Rotterdam for 93 at the Hazelaarweg.

Ryan Klein led the way with three for 13, including both openers, and then wrist and paceman -spinners Philippe Boissevain and Shariz Ahmad and paceman Mees van Vliet picked up two apiece, Pieter Seelaar top-scoring for VOC with 18.

VOC’s bowlers struck back as Voorburg hastened towards their target, claiming five wickets, but Noah Croes stood firm with 33 not out, and Voorburg gained a potentially significant net run rate advantage by winning in just 12.4 overs.

It was much closer at the Bermweg, where ACC pipped Sparta 1888 at the post with only one delivery to spare.

Sparta’s 165 for six was built on Garnet Tarr’s 53 and a typically adventurous 28-ball 47 from Ali Raza, but Heino Kuhn, also about to take the plane to Zimbabwe as part of the coaching staff, batted throughout the ACC reply for 73 not out, sharing a 123-run partnership with Thomas Hobson (69 from 40 balls) to set up the win.