It has seemed throughout the season that Kampong Utrecht were destined to take their first men’s national championship since 1992, becoming in the process the first side since PW Enschede in 1939, to win the second and top divisions in successive years, and they made sure of it at Craeyenhout on Sunday, beating HBS by five wickets with 34 deliveries to spare.
The Crows had set them a bigger target than they have become used to in recent weeks, making 211 before they were all out in the last of their 50 overs, but a solid performance with the bat saw Scott Edwards and Pierre Jacod add the 58 they needed to complete the win, finishing on 40 not out and 35 not out respectively.
Earlier, skipper Alex Roy and spinner Akhil Gopinath had picked up three wickets apiece, but even in the absence of Edwards’ fellow-international Max O’Dowd it was, as it has been all season, an all-round team performance which took Kampong home.
That they were chasing a total in excess of 200 was due to a fine last-wicket partnership of 49 between Benno Boddendijk and Jayden Rossouw, after Lucas del Bianco had anchored the middle part of the Crows’ innings with 45.
At the Loopuyt Oval, meanwhile, defending champions Punjab-Ghausia had the better of a rain-affected match against Hermes-DVS to remain five points behind the leaders with two games to play.
Two interruptions to Punjab’s innings took two overs off their allocation, but with Shoaib Minhas (97) and Mohsin Riaz (69) sharing a third-wicket stand of 123 and Saqib Zulfiqar chipping in with a brisk 34 they still managed to run up the day’s best total, 261 for eight, and this was adjusted to 266 on a DLS calculation.
Sebastiaan Braat was again Hermes’ most effective bowler with four for 52.
It always seemed likely to be too big an ask for the home side, and although Asad Zulfiqar madee 34 and Olivier Elenbaas 43, they were all out for 192, Khurram Shahzad taking four for 26 for Punjab.
VRA Amsterdam and HCC kept pace with the leading pair with wins over Voorburg and VOC Rotterdam respectively.
62 from Noah Croes and a hard-hitting, unbeaten 60-ball 74 from Ryan Klein enabled Voorburg to post 227 for six, but Johan Smal responded for VRA with 91 not out, sharing a second-wicket stand of 101 with Patrick Gouge (62).
At De Diepput Oliver White, promoted to open, batted almost throughout the HCC innings for his 85 after another top-ordeer collapse saw them reduced to 37 for four by the brothers Arnav and Aaditt Jain, Yash Patel then dominating the closing overs with a 53-ball 71, enabling the Lions to reach 252 all out.
Daniel Crowley took four for 54 when VOC replied, and with Teun Leijer claiming three for 42 the Bloodhounds were dismissed for 174, Monty Singh’s defiant 75 the only significant contribution.
The most dramatic events of the day took place at Sportpark Bermweg, where Sparta 1888, already certain of relegation, shot fellow-strugglers Excelsior ‘20 out for just 79, only three of the Schiedammers managing to reach double figures.
It looked for a while as if kamikaze batting tactics by the home side might let Excelsior back into the game, but despite Jason Ralston’s three for 40 Juandre Scheepers and Ahsan Malik took Sparta to their target in 14.2 overs, giving them only their third victory of the season.
The defeat leaves Excelsior, who still have to face HCC at home and HBS away, two points behind VOC and HBS, and the battle for seventh place and safety and eighth, with the promise of a play-off against the Hoofdklasse champions, is likely to continue down to the final round on 3 August.
Whoever finishes eighth is most likely to be facing last year’s relegated side ACC, currently two points ahead of Bloemendaal at the top of the Hoofdklasse table, but that too is a contest which may well go down to the final week, with Quick Haag a further point away in third and not yet out of the hunt.
