On July 22, 2023, the Hague derby Quick – VCC was played on Quick’s artificial turf field. Captain Annemijn van Beuge lost the toss and Quick decided to bowl first.
With eight batters, VCC began the batting innings. Sarah Asmussen and Iris Zwilling started with a nice opening score of 71. The wicket of Sarah (20) was taken by Robine Rijke, who bowled her out with a nice yorker. Soon after, Eva Lynch (0) also went bowled by Robine. Myrthe van den Raad (6) managed to score some nice runs on good bowling from Caroline de Lange and others, but unfortunately did not last long and she too went bowled. Annemijn van Beuge (2) thought she would pick up a quick single, but thanks to a sharp fielding move by Isabel van der Woning, Annemijn went for a cheap run out. There was talk of a veritable batting collapse. Snehal Padhke came in at 88-4 on the board and knew only two batters would follow. Under pressure, Snehal managed to build a nice partnership with Iris who went to the side with 55 runs. This partnership brought the Voorburgs to a total of 126-5. The total slowly began to look like something. Some nifty runs by Julia Corder and Fleur Roscam-Abbing brought the final total to 149-7, which meant VCC was all out after 30.5 overs.
Time for lunch.
Quick was happy with the total they were allowed to chase and seemed to be heading for an almost certain victory. 149 runs on a fast artificial turf pitch in 40 overs is not much. However, VCC was optimistic and never ruled out a total of 149 that could defend VCC’s bowling attack, even on this pitch.
The fielding innings started VCC with 9 players, thanks to Els Keppel who was allowed to field as a substitute. As Sarah and Iris started with a good batting opening, they also started strong with the ball in their hands. The first wicket fell after 6.3 overs thanks to a nice fielding move by Annemijn that led to a run out. Luisa Ekelmans had to step aside with 2 runs and Quick was up 9-1. The thrifty bowling meant that the pressure for the following batters kept increasing and VCC seemed “on top.” This was certainly the case when Iris Frederique Overdijk (4) caught behind, thanks in part to a nice catch by Eva Lynch behind the posts. Quick stood 16-2 after 8.5 overs. VCC kept the pressure on well and wickets kept falling. Myrthe picked up her first wicket for VCC and Eva her umpteenth wicket. A good partnership by Robine and Caroline brought worries into the VCC camp. With almost 100 runs on the board, 15 overs to go and 4 wickets in hand, it now seemed to be really difficult for Annemijn van Beuge’s team. Until the captain managed to break this partnership by taking the wicket of Caroline, with the help of Julia Corder who took a beautiful catch. Now it was up to Quick’s captain. With support from her lower order, she had to tap the pot in. Robine succumbed to the pressure and went run out after a major miscommunication. VCC seemed to be getting closer and closer. Isabel van der Woning and Alarda Mol still needed to make 38 runs in 11.4 overs to secure the win. A couple of heroic boundaries by Isabel van der Woning were enough to bring Quick’s total to 129, until she lost her wicket and had to step aside by 9 runs. Hannah Landheer, who made 116 runs the previous weekend against The Hague All Stars, came in at 11 and was Quicks last hope. She hit one boundary after another and Quick got closer and closer to the total. It looked like Hannah was going to ikken into the pot laughing, so VCC had to keep Alarda on strike as much as possible. With 8 overs to go, Quick needed to score only 6 runs to win, they were 1 shot away from victory. With Alarda on strike, Iris began her final over. One dot after another followed and VCC knew the last wicket in this over had to fall to go home with three points. On the last ball of Iris’ spell, she managed to hit Alarda’s pads. The appeal could still be heard in Voorburg and after what felt like minutes the umpire’s finger finally went up after at least 5 seconds. VCC wins by 5 runs – and two and a half players less than Quick – over Quick in a sizzling derby.