In a hard-fought battle at the Loopuyt Oval which went down to the final over, VOC Rotterdam resisted the challenge of Hoofdklasse champions ACC to win by six wickets and ensure that there would be 50-over Topklasse cricket at the Hazelaarweg next season.

As he has all reason, opener Scott Janett anchored the Bloodhounds’ innings as they replied to the Amsterdammers’ testing 236 for eight, making a patient, at times dogged 83 not out and guiding his side to victory.

After Tim de Kok won the toss and put ACC in, Akash Arora took the attack to the VOC seamers, making 60 in an aggressive knock which included seven fours.

He took full advantage of some wayward bowling by the quicker bowlers, who tended to bowl too short, although off-spinner Arnav Jain was again exemplary at the other end, his ten overs conceding just 15 runs and picking up two wickets..

Once Arora had gone, pulling Aaditt Jain once too often and finding Pieter Recordon at deep square leg, Ben van der Merwe took over, his 66-ball 59 including some classic driving which brought him nine fours; he and Santhosh Kumar Jami added 83 for the fourth wicket which saw ACC to 195 with more than seven overs remaining.

But then the South African was caught off Jason van der Meulen, and when Jami fell to Arnav Jain for 34 four balls later VOC sensed that they were back in the game.

Only 37 runs came from the last seven overs for the loss of four wickets, and what had been shaping to be a target of 250-plus was restricted to 237.

It would have been lower still had a profligate VOC attack not conceded 28 wides, and the cause was also not helped by some indifferent fielding.

VOC started with five penalty runs to their credit, apparently after a collision between batter and bowler towards the end of the ACC innings, but the Amsterdammers made a dream start to defending their total when Iftikhari Ahmad bowled De Kok in the second over of VOC’s reply; this, however, brought Danish international keeper Monty Singh in to join Janett, and this pair had to weather a hostile new-ball attack from Izhaan Sayed and Iftikhari.

Their partnership ended unexpectedly and a little unfortunately when Singh, attempting a second from a Janett straight drive off Devanshu Arya, saw the wicket broken by a direct hit from long off by Joe Reddy, and the umpire’s finger raised.

It was a decision which in an international match would certainly have gone upstairs, but Singh had to go, and Janett was joined by Van der Meulen with the game in the balance.

Van der Meulen promptly set about changing that, hitting first Arya and then Reddy for six and moving to 32 off the first 26 deliveries he faced.

Then came a crucial moment: Van der Meulen hit out again, this time off Abishek Saxena, and was caught on the long off boundary; as ACC celebrated a vital wicket, however, they saw that the umpire was signalling a six instead, having ruled that the fielder had made contact with the boundary.

Van der Meulen proceeded merrily to his fifty, made from 44 deliveries, but when he was bowled by Arslan Ahmed shortly afterwards, having contributed 54 to a 75-run stand with Janett, ACC might have believed they were back in with a chance.

Janett, though, was still there, and he and Pieter Recordon now continued to pick off the runs rarher less dramatically, until, with the score on 162, Recordon was caught behind by Van der Merwe off the returning Iftikhari.

75 were still required from 14 overs, and this was a point from which VOC had frequently subsided to defeat over the past season.

Not this time, however: Arnav Jain stood firm with Janett, who had brought up his own half-century during the partnership with Recordon, and although boundaaries remained rare punctuations of the ones and twos, and with six overs left 38 were still required.

That becamse 23 off four, but now the pressure began to tell on the Amsterdammers, and Janett and Jain went into the last over with five required.

Two singles made it three, and then Jain hit Reddy over long on, who could only palm the ball over the rope for six, and VOC had won with three deliveries to spare.

Jain’s unbeaten 41 had come from 55 deliveries, while Janett’s 83 was off 119.

It had been an absorbing contest, but VOC’s batters had delivered when it mattered most against a side which fought gallantly throughout.