VCC 1 in championship pool despite defeat

All three Top Class teams in the Hague region, HBS, HCC and Voorburg CC, have qualified for the Champions Pool. This makes the chances of there being a “Hague” national cricket champion fifty percent. The playoffs will start on Aug. 4. The bowling and fielding of the already seeded VCC against Hermes DVS was not much to complain about, but batting, the team from Voorburg let it down. Hermes won the toss and went to 193 all out at a moderate pace, with Chris Klijnhans becoming top scorer with 48. There were four VCC bowlers with two wickets each. Pacer Ryan Klein now bowled as an offspinner and did so creditably. In fact, he deserved more than the two wickets to his name. Innings VCC falls short Not yet making four runs per over on a super fast pitch, that should not be a problem. Daniel Doyle, however, grabbed a great catch (Levitt) at the square leg boundary for Hermes DVS. When top batsmen Gavin Kaplan and Noah Croes (18) also lost their wickets, things began to look sunny for the Schiedammers. That after top scorer Ryan Klein (35), No. 10 Mees van Vliet (27) came off the field with the second-highest score spoke volumes. The win therefore deservedly went to the Schiedam fighter team, which, with limited outside input, proved to be an asset to the Top Class. On Sunday, VCC could take revenge on itself against similarly seeded HCC. However, yet another downpour of flutzy summer 2024 made playing at Groene Zoom impossible. HBS Lehan Botha (90) and Tayo Walbrugh (89 not out) dragged HBS over the line against VRA, which batted first for 230 runs (Vikram Singh 96). It is to be hoped that the weather forecast for August, when the U.S. and Canada come to play the Dutch men, will be better. However, the arrival of the North Americans does mean that VCC will have to defend its title without its internationals Levitt, Kingma, Klein and Croes (as well as top batsmen Engelbrecht and Kaplan). For HBS and HCC, that problem does not play or plays to a lesser extent. Teams will take the points they accumulated in the first round into the playoffs. Standings after the group stage: