Defending champions Excelsior ’20 Schiedam and newly-promoted HBS Den Haag set up a tantalising Ascension Day clash by maintaining their unbeaten Topklasse records on Saturday, while HCC and VRA Amsterdam emerged from the chasing pack with comfortable victories.

In the other match ACC, with player-coach Zakir Kathrada in the side for the first time, coasted to a nine-wicket victory over Punjab Rotterdam and made their first move away from the relegation zone.

Excelsior owed much of their away win over VOC Rotterdam to a century stand for the third wicket between overseas players Lorenzo Ingram (58) and James Hilditch (65), with Tim Etman and Joost Kroesen chipping in with valuable thirties.

Their total of 215 for four seemed somewhat on the conservative side, but VOC made heavy weather of the chase, which was held together by Chris Free’s 137-ball 84. The rest of the top order did a little better than they had against VRA last week, but it took Ahsan Malik Jamil’s 33, in a 60-run stand with Free for the fifth wicket, to keep the Rotterdam side in with a chance.

Ingram ultimately removed both, finishing with three for 29, and VOC fell 13 runs short of the Excelsior total.

At Craeyenhout HBS captain Tobias Visée again got his side away to a blistering start with a 31-ball 56 which included nine fours and a six, and with useful contributions from Corey Rutgers (32), Navjit Singh (32) and Ferdi Vink (42), the home side posted 213 against Dosti.

Corné Dry confirmed his value to the Amsterdammers with three for 52, while Mohammed Hafeez took three for 37 and Victor Grandia two for 33 including his 300th wicket in the top flight.

Ferdi Vink, Frashad Khan and Wessel Coster then reduced Dosti to 70 for six, only Taruwar Kohli (30) showing the ability to stay around for very long, and although the lower order eventually lent some respectability to their side’s total, Vink came back to clean up the tail and they were all out for 174.

Vink finished with three for 31 and Khan three for 44 in a thoroughly convincing performance from the Craeyenhout side.

Having demolished VOC last week VRA’s new-ball attack of Quirijn Gunning and Fred Klaassen repeated their effort against Quick Haag in Amstelveen, reducing the visitors to 47 for seven amidst a series of interruptions for rain.

Haseeb Gul Mian quickly added to the visitors’ misery once he got his hands on the ball, and although the tail managed to double the score Quick were dismissed for 97 in just 28 overs, Gunning taking four for 20, Klaassen four for 40 and Mian two for 23.

Vikram Singh, Mitch Lees and Ben Cooper all fell farly cheaply when VRA replied, but the old stagers Eric Szwarczynski and Peter Borren had an unbroken stand of 55 for the fourth wicket and VRA completed a convincing seven-wicket victory.

HCC started badly against Hermes-DVS at Sportpark Harga, losing both openers Reinier Kalis and last week’s centurion Tonny Staal by the time just six runs were on the board, but Jonathan Vandiar was in supreme form, assisted by some rather wayward bowling from the home side.

Supported first by Ryan Ninan, making his Topklasse debut, and then by skipper Mark Jonkman, he hammered his way to his second century of the season, making 131 from 142 deliveries with 16 fours before he was the last man out with the total on 223.

Olivier Elenbaas and Henrico Venter, who had got their team away to a dream start, finished with three for 29 and three for 32 respectively, but although Stef Myburgh used nine bowlers he was unable to find a way to contain the aggressive Vandiar.

Hermes seemed to be in with a shout when Myburgh and Nick Statham were engaged in compiling a 60-run second-wicket stand, but once Myburgh was bowled by Olivier Klaus for 55 and Statham edged the same bowler through to keeper Kalis, the writing was on the wall.

Klaus and Jonkman collected three wickets apiece as Hermes were dismissed for 176, but a key role was also played by Ninan, whose 10-over spell was wicketless but conceded just 30 runs, applying crucial pressure in the middle overs.

ACC’s clash with Punjab at the Zomercomplex was a Zulfiqar family affair, Rehmat producing his best Topklasse figures of four for 26 as he worked his way through the Punjab top order, younger brother and skipper Saqib taking three for 28 and sharing an unbroken stand of 129 with his triplet brother Asad.

Asad made 74 and Saqib 63, both not out, and ACC won with seven overs to spare; for Punjab, Zaffar Chaudhary top-scored with 36 and Ashan Bamunusinghe contributed 33, but after a promising start to the season Punjab will need to up their game if they are to avoid slipping into relegation danger.