VCC gave away a certain-looking victory against Punjab in the closing stages. Thanks to fantastic innings by Ryan Klein and Michael Molenaar, VCC was on course for a simple victory. In the closing stages, the wheels came off: 248-242. HCC and HBS were hopeless batting against VRA and Excelsior, respectively.
VCC won the toss and went to field. Punjab started cautiously, but suffered no wicket loss until Musa Ahmad was caught brilliantly by keeper Noah Croes.
Shoaib Minhas (29) played the ball into his own wicket. Then Punjab punished bad balls well, resulting in a partnership of sixty runs for the fourth wicket between Saqib Zulfiqar and Jonathan Vandiar (24).
Spectacular it all was not, but solid. Thanks mainly to Saqib Zulfiqar (97 not out), Punjab reached 248/7 in the available fifty overs. For VCC, Michael Molenaar took 3-28.
Innings VCC
The Croes/ Kaplan pair had to nullify a poor start (7/2), but at 43/4, Punjab was the dominant side. The outstanding left arm spinner Muhammad Shafiq took 3-29 in ten overs. When he was through his overs, however, Ryan Klein (92) and Michael Molenaar (72) smelled their opportunity and very cleverly made 154 runs for the fifth wicket, an all-time record for the fifth wicket in the first team. The old record dated from July 15, 1989 versus HCC 2, with a wicket stand oof 151 from 168 to 319 by Marc Nota (67*) and Luuk de Leede (100). In 1989, VCC promoted for the first time to the then big league, then the highest level.
VCC was “cruising” to victory. But when both batters went out, things still got exciting. VCC’s tail batsmen had to pull the chestnuts out of the fire. However, Sajjad Kamal and Sikander Zulfiqar took crucial wickets for the visitors, causing VCC to lose by six runs at the last minute.
Other Hague clubs
HCC and HBS both had a total off-day at bat. HCC held VRA handsomely at 206 (McInerney 4-24), but saw no chance to pass that. Not by a long shot, as HCC was all out for 72 at the hands of Fletcher (three wickets) and Shariz Ahmad (four wickets).
The same was true for HBS, which proved unable to top Excelsior’s 163 runs (Kyle Klein four wickets). Jason Ralston, who took seven wickets for 11 runs (!), bowled out most of the Hagenaars (66 all out).
