Asides

Rod Lyall 15/08/2022

A fighting century by Peter Borren, the tenth of his twenty-year career in the top flight, and a strong defensive effort by the VRA attack carried the Amsterdam side to a 24-run victory over HBS Craeyenhout in the Amsterdamse Bos on Saturday, their second win in successioin keeping alive their faint hopes of reaching the final four.

Borren received little support from the rest of the VRA batting, stands of 73 for the fifth wicket with Aryan Dutt (31) and of 45 for the eighth with Mitch Lees apart, but when HBS began chasing their target of 225 the bowlers responded magnificently.

Dutt was especially disciplined, bowling five maidens in his initial nine-over spell and conceding just ten runs for the wickets of Reece Mason and Wesley Barresi, and then Vikram Singh chimed in, tearing through the HBS middle order and taking four wickets as the visitors were reduced to 69 for six.

Tayo Walbrugh, however, was still there, and Julian de Mey now joined him in a stand of 129 which brought their side back into the game.

But Udit Nashier, Jack Balbirnie and Borren himself all succeeded in restricting the boundaries so effectively that the asking rate kept rising, and when the batters began to accelerate it was Nashier who bowled De Mey for 59, initiating the final collapse which, although Walbrugh reached his fifth century of the season just before the end, saw HBS dismissed for 200 of the last ball of their 50 overs.

HCC, meanwhile, took full advantage of the HBS defeat with a 69-run victory over Voorburg at Westvliet which enabled them to leapfrog into second place on the table, greatly improving their chances of securing a double crack at reaching the grand final on 10 September.

A second-wicket stand of 147 between Tonny Staal (78) and Zac Worden (55) was the basis of HCC’s total of 224 for six, Boris Gorlee chipping in with a run-a-ball 31 and Viv Kingma the most successful of the Voorburg bowlers with three for 30.

Then seamer Felix Bennett, in only his sixth Topklasse match, ran through the powerful Voorburg batting line-up, taking six for 27 as the home side collapsed to 155 all out.

Bas de Leede again fought a rearguard action, making a 90-ball 57 and sharing a 72-run stand for the fifth wicket with Shariz Ahmad (35), but this time was on the losing side as Voorburg dropped their first points in the championship pool.

Yet another century by Jonathan Vandiar, his third in four innings, saw Punjab Rotterdam to 253 for five against Excelsior ’20 at Thurlede, Teja Nidamanuru making 37 and Sikander Zulfiqar 48 not out, and after three times failing to defend larger totals the Punjab bowlers returned to their winning ways as they dismissed Excelsior for 141.

Nidamanuru did the initial damage with a nine-over spell in which he took four for 22, and then Saqib Zulfiqar claimed three for 54, ending a dogged innings of 30 by Roel Verhagen, while Vandiar and Asad Zulfiqar combined to run out Brett Hampton, whose 30-ball 32 had been Excelsior’s last hope of a successful chase.

In the relegation pool, Dosti Amsterdam improved their chances of avoiding the two automatic places leading to next season’s Hoofdklasse with a six-wicket defeat of Kampong Utrecht at Sportpark Drieburg.

Waheed Masood took three for 25, Kuldeep Diwan three for 27 and Asief Hoseinbaks and Waqas Raja two wickets apiece as Kampong were dismissed for 112, Tom Cooper top-scoring with 37.

Raja then led the reply with 38, and Dosti needed only 21.2 overs to knock off the runs.

In a hard-fought match at Het Loopveld ACC got off to a remarkable start against VOC Rotterdam, Robin Smith (57) and Chris Knoll (69) putting on 111 for the first wicket at eight and a half an over, but the Rotterdammers were brought back into the game by Matt Smit, who removed both openers and finished with three for 53 and by the unlikely person of Scott Edwards, converted from wicketkeeper to spinner, who ran through the middle order to the tune of three for 33.

Siebe van Wingerden finished things off with three for 27, and ACC were all out for 226.

VOC were in trouble at 69 for four, 40 of them from the bat of Smit, but they were rescued by the depth of their batting, Tim de Kok making 44, Edwards (batting at six) contributing a quick 23, Corey Rutgers adding 32, and then Jelte Schoonheim, who had engineered last week’s victory over Kampong with a fine spell with the ball, hitting a 35-ball 59 not out to see VOC home by two wickets with six overs to spare.

At Het Schootsveld on Sunday Sparta 1888’s relegation woes deepened despite a much-improved effort with the bat, as they lost to Salland Deventer by three wickets in a harfd-fought game.

They were given a decent start by Craig Ambrose (31) and Raza Noor (43), and then Samit Gohil (32) and Mudassar Bukhari (23) took them on to 135 for two.

But once Bukhari, hampered by a leg strain, was dismissed, soon followed by Gohil, the wickets again began to tumble, the last eight wickets falling for 52 as they were dismissed for 187, Akhil Gopinath taking four for 34.

Some wayward bowling from Sparta aided Salland’s chase, but after Khalid Ahmadi had removed both openers Bukhari, bowling spin off a couple of steps, grabbed three wickets, and the game was evenly balanced with Salland on 129 for five.

They were rescued by a brisk 59 from Sahir Naqash, and although Ahsan Malik, who conceded just 22 from his ten overs, returned to remove Naqash and Gijs van Molen, Salland reached their target with more than ten overs to spare.

Now bottom of the table on points average and with a worse net run rate than their rivals, Sparta will need a radical reversal of form if they are to have any chance of avoiding the drop to the Hoofdklasse.

Rod Lyall 08/08/2022

When the sun shines batters traditionally prosper, and Sunday’s thirteenth round of Topklasse fixtures was certainly no exception to the rule: nearly 2800 runs were scored across the six games, there were six centuries including the two highest individual scores of the season, and three partnerships in excess of 150.

The main exceptions to the runfest were in Amsterdam, where four teams under threat of relegation were engaged, but elsewhere the bowlers generally had a pretty lean time.

The day’s chief beneficiaries were leaders Voorburg, who not only saw off their nearest challengers, HBS Craeyenhout, but with the defeat of Excelsior ’20 as well opened up an eight-point gap at the top of the table with three matches to play; this means that they are guaranteed to finish first, thus gaining a double crack at the final and home advantage all the way through the title play-offs.

They had to withstand a spirited challenge from HBS to get there, a century by Tayo Walbrugh – his fourth of the season – taking the Craeyenhout side to 187 for three with 13 overs remaining in their pursuit of Voorburg’s 263 for nine.

But then Stef Mulder, Logan van Beek and Bas de Leede combined to instigate a batting collapse, and with two run-outs in the closing stages HBS were all out for 244, De Leede finishing with three for 27.

Earlier, Andre Malan’s 72-ball 80 and 53 from Van Beek were the highlights of an otherwise not altogether convincing batting effort by the leaders, Wesley Barresi’s four for 42 and Stephan Vink’s three for 36 whittling away at the Voorburgers’ line-up and keeping their side in the hunt.

HCC needed to beat Excelsior at De Diepput to retain any real chance of reaching the final four, and they were pushed all the way before securing a precious 19-run victory.

Their total of 285 for four was founded upon opener Tonny Staal’s 143, made at virtually a run a ball and including ten fours and as many sixes, and his second-wicket stand of 146 with Zac Worden (63).

Excelsior seemed to be facing certain defeat when seamers Hidde Overdijk, Reinier Bijloos and Felix Bennett reduced them to 94 for four, but Lorenzo Ingram launched a ferocious counter-attack, hitting 122 from 115 deliveries with six fours and nine sixes and bringing his side back into the game.

HCC’s spinners, however, had the final word, Damien Crowley breaking a crucial sixth-wicket stand of 83 between Ingram and Stan van Troost (27), and going on to take four for 24 as Excelsior were eventually dismissed for 266.

The biggest totals of the day were at Het Zomercomplex in Rotterdam, where VRA Amsterdam earned their first points in the championship pool by chasing down Punjab’s 316 for nine, in which Jonathan Vandiar had continued his high-scoring run with a 136-ball 143, including no fewer than 19 fours and two sixes.

He shared a fifth-wicket stand of 178 with Saqib Zulfiqar, who contributed a run-a-ball 94 before becoming one of three victims for Peter Borren at a cost of 45 runs.

Sohail Bhatti, playing only his second game of the season, quickly reduced VRA to 41 for two, but then Vikram Singh and Johan Smal combined to put on 156 for the third wicket, Smal making a 66-ball 92 and Singh going on to 118, made from 98 deliveries with 16 fours and four sixes, supported now by Aryan Dutt’s aggressive 44.

Only 25 were needed when Singh departed, and Debrup Dasgupta made 18 of them as VRA pulled off the fourth-highest run chase since 2000 to keep their faint hopes of reaching the championship play-offs alive.

The relegation pool is increasingly resolving itself into two groups of three, as ACC opened up a four-point gap between themselves and the sides below them with a 49-run victory over Salland at Het Loopveld.

The Deventer side dismissed their hosts for 177, Elam Bharathi taking four for 27 and Akhil Gopinath three for 21 and Fergus Wegener top-scoring for ACC with 46, but then they were themselves all out for 128, Bharathi completing a solid all-round effort with Salland’s top score of 29 but receiving too little support from his team-mates; Thomas Hobson claimed three for 21, but it was Mees van Vliet’s four for 24, including the wicket of Bharathi which was most decisive.

On a day dominated by the batters the shining star with the ball, however, was Dosti’s Waheed Masood, who took seven for 21, including a hat-trick, as his side bowled out Sparta 1888 for just 90 and recorded their first win of the season.

Amitoze Singh’s 80 had enabled Dosti to reach 247 before they were all out, Ahsan Malik claiming three for 33 for Sparta and Khalid Ahmadi three for 38, but Masood’s fine effort ensured that the Capelle side were skittled for their third double-figure total in as many weeks.

The win almost certainly comes too late to save Dosti from relegation, but it should serve notice to the other teams in the pool that they cannot take victory for granted against Mahesh Hans’s side.

The day brought disappointment for Kampong Utrecht, who posted their best start of the season against VOC Rotterdam at Maarschalkerweerd but still lost by nine wickets, leaving them with a huge task if they are to fight their way into the top half of the pool.

Ratha Alphonse (44) and Tushar Sharma put on 63 for the first wicket and then Alphonse and Cole Briggs saw them to 118, but another mid-order slump brought VOC back into the game, and it took 32 from Vikram Chaturvedi and Alex Roy’s 42 not out to get them to 224 for seven; Jelte Schoonheim was the most successful bowler for the Rotterdammers with three for 35.

Kampong needed early wickets, but Malik’s dismissal of Francois Fourie was their only success, and with Max O’Dowd making an assured 110 not out and Matt Smit assisting with an unbeaten 77, the pair put on 170 in an unbroken stand which saw VOC home with four overs to spare.