Now the VCC World Cup is over, it is nice to reflect and show the performances of the VCC players during this 7-week journey. Without marginalising the input from other players in the team of course.
VCC welcomed home their Dutch contingent last week from a triumphant World Cup in India. Following the heroics of Logan van Beek (30 runs in the super over vs West-Indies) and Bas de Leede (a fiver and 123 runs vs Scotland during an incredible run chase) and the rest of the team in the qualification tournament in Zimbabwe, the team defied all expectations in the main tournament by defeating semi-finalists South Africa and Bangladesh as they registered two wins in the group stage.
The results were due in no small part to the contribution of several current and former Voorburg Cricket Club. Musa Ahmad, Michael Levitt, and Viv Kingma played a key part in the qualification cycle, scoring runs and taking wickets in order to set-up the team for the Qualification Tournament in Zimbabwe and the end tournament in India. Shariz Ahmad, Noah Croes and Ryan Klein were rewarded for their stellar seasons in the Dutch competition with a place in the final squad for India alongside Logan van Beek (who played for VCC and Worcestershire this season) and Sybrand Engelbrecht. Bas de Leede was an ever present in the team throughout the qualification and World Cup, combining an outstanding debut season in the English County Championship with Durham with a successful tournament.
Another VCC youth product, Aryan Dutt was one of the standout performers taking wickets at crucial moments and often opening the bowling for the Dutch.
VCC captain SA, ended the World Cup tournament with 300 runs in 8 matches to finish as the top run scorer for the Dutch team, averaging 37.50 in his debut international tournament. Logan scored 140 runs with Bas de Leede 1 run behind on 139. All three players finished ahead of world stars such as Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali.
SA and Bas also combined for 11 catches between them, with both finishing in the Top 10 fielders in the tournament as a whole.
Aryan Dutt ended up with 10 wickets at an average of 42.6 with Logan van Beek claiming 12 wickets at 39.66 whilst Bas de Leede finished as top bowler for the Dutch with 16 wickets, surpassing his dad to become the all-time leading wicket taker for the Dutch at world cups, at an average of 30.43.
VCC is proud of the achievements of the Dutch team overall but particularly of the current and ex-VCC players that were a part of such a historic presentation against some of the best players of all time. We are incredibly privileged that Michael, Viv, Noah and Ryan all coached Youth Teams at VCC last season, while SA obviously played a huge role in our senior teams’ successes, as captain and head of the Technical Committee ultimately leading our VCC 1 men’s team to their first Topklasse title in more than 20 years.
We are all fully aware of the sacrifices and efforts that the players have had to put in to achieve their goals and we look forward to seeing them represent The Netherlands in the T20 World Cup in the United States and Caribbean in mid-2024, as well as their contributions for VCC in the 2024 season.
(c) Photo Credit: AFP Photo
