Asides

Rod Lyall 19/07/21

Amsterdam’s Topklasse clubs have had a mostly disappointing season so far, but two of them produced outstanding results on Sunday, ACC beating VOC Rotterdam and VRA inflicting only their second defeat of the campaign on leaders Punjab.

Winning the toss and electing to bat, VRA were given a great start by opener Vikram Singh, who took on Punjab’s normally parsimonious seam attack to the tune of a 38-ball 57 which included nine fours and two sixes.

The rest of the batting was unable to maintain such momentum, and at 127 for five it seemed that the Amsterdam side might be on the road to another disappointing total.

But then Jack Balbirnie, who had been involved in a useful stand with Peter Borren (28), was joined by Leon Turmaine, and this pair added 78 for the sixth wicket before Balbirnie, on 66, was caught on the midwicket boundary by Yasir Usman off the bowling of Suleiman Tariq.

Turmaine went on to reach 51 before he was run out in the final over, trying to retain the strike, and the innings closed on 232, the highest total of the day.

VRA’s pace men, Quirijn Gunning and Ashir Abid, made the most of the opportunity to defend a substantial score, and with help from spinner Luke Hartsink and seamer Singh, steadily reduced Punjab’s powerful batting line-up to an unwonted 94 for seven.

At this point Imran ul Haq joined skipper Tariq, and together they set about reducing the deficit, adding 73 and bringing the score to within 66 of their target before Hartsink returned to bowl Tariq for 37, his highest Topklasse score. Hartsink finished with three for 45.

Ul Haq continued in company with Sohail Bhatti, adding another 28 runs and bringing his own tally to 39, but once he fell to Leon Turmaine the way was clear for Peter Borren to finish it off and Punjab were dismissed for 196, giving VRA a 36-run victory which kept alive their hopes of reaching the play-offs.

It was much closer at Het Loopveld, where ACC pulled off the unlikely feat of defending their slim total of 150 to beat VOC by 17 runs.

ACC had to battle all the way after being put in by their opponents, Ramdas Upadhyaya taking three for 22, but Ram Ramesh Babu’s patient 48 enabled them to reach 150.

Even so, it seemed unlikely to be enough, especially when Scott Edwards and Max O’Dowd began in aggressive mood.

But Mies van Vliet bowled Edwards for 15, and although O’Dowd delivered another solid innings he received little support from the rest of the upper and middle order, and with Anthony Alangara Napoleon taking four for 28 VOC declined from 83 for two to 133 all out.

O’Dowd was the eighth to go, having made 76, but once Sahil Kothari had removed him with 23 still needed he went on to take the final two wickets and finish with three for 18.

HCC, meanwhile, moved back into second place on the table with a six-wicket victory at De Diepput over an HBS Craeyenhout side depleted by the absence of key overseas players Tayo Walbrugh and Ryan Klein, who had both tested positive for Covid-19.

Hidde Overdijk ripped through the HBS top order, bowling his ten overs unchanged to finish with four for 27, and then Olivier Klaus took over, his three for 11, along with Clayton Floyd’s two for 3, ensuring that HBS were bundled out for 80.

The Craeyenhout side went down fighting, taking four wickets before HCC overhauled their score, but an aggressive 24 not out from Overdijk saw HCC home in just 19.3 overs.

At Sportpark Bermweg Voorburg stayed level on points with HCC, nine points behind Punjab, with a six-wicket victory over Sparta 1888.

Sparta started promisingly enough, a second-wicket stand of 92 between Randeep Deol (29) and Garnett Tarr (57) setting them on course to a decent total, but after they were dismissed in quick succession another batting collapse followed, Stef Mulder and Aryan Dutt taking three for 32 and three for 29 respectively as they were dismissed for 151.

Mohit Hingorani and Tom de Grooth gave Voorburg’s response a solid beginning, and De Grooth went on to anchor the innings, his 76 taking his side to within four runs of their target before he was bowled by Kux Kwinana.

Dutt, though, was still there, and he ended on 34 not out as Voorburg won with more than eleven overs to spare.

Excelsior ’20 Schiedam made short work of Dosti Amsterdam at Sportpark Drieburg, winning by eight wickets and moving into fourth place on the table on net run rate.

A solid bowling performance, with Niels Etman, Klaas Roelfsema, Tristan Stubbs, Remco van Bochove and Lorenzo Ingram each collecting two wickets, saw Dosti dismissed for 109 after Rahil Ahmed and Mahesh Hans had reached 40 without loss, and Roel Verhagen’s 42-ball 49 and Ingram’s not-out 30 took Excelsior to the win in just 14.4 overs.

Rod Lyall 12/07/21

A fine all-round performance by Julian de Mey propelled HBS Craeyenhout to a nine-wicket victory over bottom side Dosti-United Amsterdam on Sunday, taking them into second place on the table, ten points behind leaders Punjab Amsterdam.

De Mey broke open the fragile Dosti batting line-up by removing the dangerous Rahil Ahmed when he had made a 32-ball 37, and went on to take two more, finishing with three for 29 from his ten overs. He was well backed up by young Benno Boddendijk, who cleaned up the tail and ended with four for 15.

Their efforts were instrumental in bowling Dosti out for a mere 128, the last five wickets falling for just 15 runs, and then Tobias Visée and De Mey put on 71 in an opening stand which took only twelve and a half overs.

Visée fell to a splendid catch by Vinoo Tewarie at short extra cover when he had made 44 from 36 deliveries, but as HBS neared their target De Mey launched a series of onslaughts on Mahesh Hans, ending on 47 not out as back-to-back boundaries took his side to the win with more than 30 overs to spare. There was also time for Tayo Walbrugh to add another 20 to his imposing aggregate for the season.

In Saturday’s four games, three of them seriously affected by the weather, the outstanding highlight was an unbroken third-wicket partnership of 237 between Lorenzo Ingram and Tristan Stubbs which enabled Excelsior ’20 Schiedam to run up 295 for two against ACC at Thurlede.

Coming together at 58 for two, Ingram and Stubbs were held in check for much of the innings by a persistent ACC attack, but with plenty of wickets in hand the overseas pair unleashed towards the end, 101 runs coming from the final seven overs as the batters cashed in on their earlier caution.

Ingram ended on 114 not out, his second century of the season coming from 142 deliveries, while Stubbs’s first three-figure haul in the Topklasse took just 98 balls and included six fours and five sixes.

A prolonged period of rain threatened to terminate the game there, but improved conditions enabled the players to return, with ACC set the near-impossible task of making 207 from 28 overs.

Continuing their complete hold on the game, Ingram and Stubbs promptly reduced the Amsterdammers to 23 for four, Ingram taking three for 6 in six overs, and ACC were content to bat out the remaining overs, Ammar Zaidi facing 86 deliveries for 13 not out as his side closed on 51 for six.

It could perhaps have been interpreted as a protest against the unfairness of their situation, had they not batted for 49.1 overs for 85 the week before, chasing an HBS total of 198 for seven.

Leaders Punjab staged a successful comeback against VOC Rotterdam at the Hazelaarweg, after Max O’Dowd and Scott Edwards (59) had put on 106 in an opening stand which gave the challengers an initial advantage.

O’Dowd batted on after Edwards’s departure, but with wickets falling regularly at the other end, three of them to Saqib Zulfiqar’s leg-spin at a cost of 35 runs, it was increasingly clear that VOC’s hopes of setting a big target depended almost entirely upon him.

He was eventually dismissed for 87 by Suleiman Tariq, whose three wickets cost 47 runs, and VOC were all out for 210.

Punjab’s reply was just getting under way as the rain arrived, and when it had passed they were faced with a revised target of 157 from 32 overs.

Another solid performance from the top order saw them home with four overs to spare, Steph Myburgh making 35 and Rehmat Zulfiqar 27 before Asad Zulfiqar and Teja Nidamanuru took their side to the brink of victory.

Nidamanuru fell for 43 with five still needed, but Asad remained 44 not out, his brother Sikander coming to the crease to hit the winning boundary.

Voorburg, second on Saturday morning, also saw their challenge falter, as HCC bowled them out for 132 at Westvliet and went on to win by five wickets in another DLS result.

Veteran former international Tom de Grooth top-scored for Voorburg with a steady 30, but Ollie Klaus took three for 49 and Clayton Floyd five for 18 – consolidating his position as the competition’s leading wicket-taker – as the home side’s batting again subsided.

Bas de Leede and Karl Nieuwoudt hit back hard when HCC replied, and with Tonny Staal, Musa Ahmad and Boris Gorlee all back in the pavilion and only 30 on the board, the Lions found themselves in a precarious situation as the rain arrived.

Their target adjusted to 102 from 27 overs, Damian Crowley and Hidde Overdijk were equal to the task, however, and although De Leede returned to remove Crowley for 41 and Daniël Trijzelaar with successive deliveries with seven still needed, Overdijk remained to finish the job, ending on 35 not out.

De Leede took four for 15, his best return for the season.

The only match to escape Saturday’s rain was in the Amsterdamse Bos, where VRA Amsterdam dismissed Sparta 1888 for 175 and won by seven wickets.

Sparta’s innings started promisingly enough, but Vikram Singh removed both Garnett Tarr (26) and Mudassar Bukhari (31) to ensure that there was no repeat of the Capelle side’s runfest against VOC, and although the lower order chipped in, the rest of the VRA did as well, the six remaining bowlers all claiming a wicket in support of Singh’s three for 24.

Half-century partnerships between Eric Szwarczynski, who made an unbeaten 54, and Jack Balbirnie (37) and then between Szwarczynski and Peter Borren (46 not out) enabled VRA to cruise home, the winning runs coming with more than 20 overs to spare.

The victory gives VRA at least a theoretical chance of reaching the play-offs, although with six points separating them from sixth-placed Excelsior they cannot afford any more slip-ups, and would need other results to go their way.