VCC v Kampong at Voorburg, 18 May 1997 - Report

Hoofdklasse 1997, Round 4
VCC v Kampong
Voorburg
18 May 1997

Result: Kampong won by 28 runs

After the warming up VCC already lost one of their strike bowlers. Nadim Abbas
had not recovered yet from the injury he sustained the match before against
HCC.  Kampong started their battinginnings in a positive manner with their
player/coach Jeremy Bray and Mulder. After 10 overs they reached 39 runs
without the loss of a wicket and at the 20 overs mark their score totalled 68
runs without any loss. Mulder (32) was the first batman to lose his wicket to
the offspin-bowling of Marc Nota (catch by Luuk de Leede). Five minutes before
lunch rain urged the umpires to call an early lunch (93 for 1 after 28). Due
some showers the match was not to continue immediately after the lunch. After a
long interval the Kampong side were left only 12 more overs to bat.  Bray
immediately accelerated with good scoring shots but was unlucky to give the
VCC-attack a chance they accepted thankfully. Somehow the wicket of Bray (57)
and the reduction in overs caused some panic in the minds of the
Kampong players. Toporder batsman Cantrell went to the lower order and the other
batmen tried to score as fast as possible with some unorthodox slugging. This
gave VCC the chance to get their wickets and to keep the Kampongtotal within
limits. Only Bakker (28) and Aziz (14) were able to score some good runs and
reach the total of 153 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in 40 overs. Kampong had
lost 8 wickets in 12 overs for only 60 runs.  Due to a back injury Vroom was
not able to open the innings for VCC. Tim de Leede joined Zulfiqar instead and
together they made sure that VCC had a decent openingstand. Although the
scoringrate was, because of good bowling by Khan and Edwards, somewhat below
the required runrate (24 runs after 10 overs), VCC had all reasons to believe
in a good win. Both of the opening batsmen are capable of scoring the required
runs. But at the time Zulfiqar decided to accelerate he misjudged a ball of
Edwards and was bowled. Captain Nota was the next batsman to join de Leede but
short after the loss of Zulfiqar, de Leede was caught behind at Khan's bowling.
After 20 overs VCC had only reached 46 runs but lost two of their strike
batsmen. Marc Nota usually is a batsman that can score the required runs but he
lacked the support of the middle-order batsman. After 30 overs VCC was on a
total of 93 runs for the loss of 4 wickets. The required runrate was up to six.
In the dark afternoon with some light showers and a wet and heavy ball it
became more and more difficult to get the required runrate per over. In order
to get the victory the batsmen took more risks and hit the ball through the
air. But the Kampongfielders showed their skills and caught most of the balls.
At the moment Nota's (28) wicket fell the chances of a VCC victory were reduced
to almost zero. The low-order batsmen were not able to produce more than some
singles and after 40 overs VCC fell 28 runs short from a victory. The bowling
of Khan, Edwards and Cantrell was to good for the VCC side.  

 Contributed by Guus R. A. Beekhof (070046gb@student.eur.nl)