Defending champions Voorburg moved to the top of the table by virtue of two victories on a Saturday which saw the surprises of the opening day were largely wiped from the slate.

VRA Amsterdam seized the initiative in their match against Voorburg at the neutral Loopuyt Oval as Peter Ruffell claimed three quick wickets, but Henry Melville’s 43-ball 58 saw them to 145 for six before his dismissal cued another flurry of wickets and they were all out for 151.

Ruffell finished with five for 17, while Shariz Ahmad chimed in with four for 13.

Vikram Singh gave signs of a welcome return to form, driving sweetly on his way to 34 from 24 deliveries, but despite Jack Cassidy’s 29-ball 35 VRA were unable to match the required rate, and the innings closed on 119 for eight.

A shortage of umpires had caused the opening matches in the two triple-headers scheduled for Saturday to be postponed until next week, so hosts Hermes-DVS missed out on the opener against VRA, but were soon on the back foot in the day’s final game, against Voorburg.

Mees van Vliet struck early, removing both Daniel Doyle-Calle and Ash Ostling, and it was the Elenbaas brothers who were largely responsible for the home side reaching 117, opener Ralph making 23 and elder brother Olivier 38.

Sebastiaan Braat struck back when Voorburg replied, bowling the dangerous Michael Levitt with the fourth ball of the innings, but Noah Croes saw his side to a six-wicket victory with an unbeaten, 40-ball 61, sharing a fourth-wicket stand of 56 with Ryan Klein (34 from 21), and Voorburg won with almost five overs to spare.

HCC’s Josh Brown pricked Sparta 1888’s balloon at Sportpark Bermweg as last week’s surprise package found the Lions’ total of 154 beyond them.

Clayton Floyd had been instrumental in their reaching that total with a 25-ball 48, helped by twenties from Brown and Boris Gorlee, Khalid Ahmadi the most successful of Sparta’s bowlers with three for 26.

Coming on in the fifth over after Kyle Klesse and Ahsan Malik had made a promising start to Sparta’s reply, Brown began with a maiden before claiming three wickets in his second over, reducing the home side to 29 for four, and then added the vital scalp of Klesse in his next.

There was no way back for Sparta from that position, and although Umar Baker made 30 against the change bowlers, the innings ended on 105.

Punjab-Ghausia proved much too strong for Rood en Wit at the Zomercomplex, dismissing the Haarlemmers for 94 and then knocking off the runs in under 13 overs for the loss of four wickets.

Alexander de Graaff gave his side a decent start with a 26-ball 34, but thereafter Punjab’s spinners took over, Saqib Zulfiqar returning the remarkable figures of four for 2 in three overs and Shoaib Minhas taking three for 15.

Izmatullah Nasery again gave Rood en Wit hope by removing Jonathan Vandiar and Musa Ahmad, but Saqib (33 not out) and Burhan Niaz (21 not out) combined in an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 30 to make sure of the points.

In the day’s other curtailed triple-header, at the Hazelaarweg, VOC’s opening encounter with HBS Craeyenhout was rescheduled, but the Crows proceeded to set the day’s highest total with 176 for eight against Excelsior ‘20.

They were given a great start by Wesley Barresi’s 18-ball 34, and despite losing Lucas del Bianco, who was forced to retire after collapsing on the pitch in evident pain, they went on to their substantial score thanks to 35 from Kyle Klein.

Raynard van Tonder (39) and Roel Verhagen (42) put on 70 for the first wicket when Excelsior replied, but once they had gone HBS were able to peg the scoring back, Luuk Kroesen’s 27 the best effort from the middle order as the innings closed on 156 for  six.

Excelsior struck back, however, in the day’s final game, dismissing VOC for just 59 and needing only 6.1 overs to complete a crushing ten-wicket victory.

Jason van der Meulen, the only survivor of VOC’s four overseas players from the 50-over competition, was the only one to reach double figures, making 29 before becoming one of four victims of Verhagen’s gentle off-spin, at a cost of 13 runs.

Van Tonder (42 not out from 26 deliveries) and Verhagen (18 from 11) then completed the win, greatly improving their side’s net run rate in the process. 

Sunday will see a further seven matches, several sides passing the halfway mark in this highly-compressed round robin by the time the third round is completed.