Excelsior '20 Schiedam sealed their 10th national championship, besting Dosti-United by 27 to take the best-of-three final 2-0.
After an emphatic win away at Drieburg last week, Excelsior saw off a strengthened Dosti side, defending 211 to bag their first title since 2012 in front of an enthusiatic home crowd. Lorenzo Ingram's innings of 73 provided the backbone to Excelsior's total, which would prove beyond Dosti despite the efforts of Stiaan van Zyl and Rahil Ahmed.
Excelsior found the going tough early on after being inserted by Dosti skipper Vinoo Tewarie, Tim Etman and Roel Verhagen's opening stand of 54 coming at a funereal rate of barely 2 over. Verhagen nonetheless stuck at his task, continuing to accumulate after Etman was caught behind off Ahsan Malik in the 16th over.
He added another 37 with Ingram before holing out off van Zyl just after reaching his half century, but the runs were still hard to come by, Mohammad Hafeez proving particularly tough to get away, his ten over spell probably the pick of the bowling despite going wicketless, giving away just 13 runs.
Mudassar Bukhari ensured that the next batsmen would be unable to kick on, claiming three middle-order wickets including that of Ingram, and for a while it looked like Excelsior would be held under 200. A brisk 30 down the order from Joost Kroesen coupled with a pair of cameos from Marcel Schewe and David Woutersen, who both struck 8 off 4, saw them past that landmark, but Dosti will have been pleased with their morning's work having held the hosts to 211-7 from their 50 overs.
After the break the momentum swiftly swung back to Excelsior however, as Tom Heggelman struck three times in his opening spell to remove Sherry Butt, Vimal Tewarie and Mudassar Bukhari cheaply, whilst Gijs Kroesen chipped in with the wicket of Vinoo Tewarie as Dosti stumbled out of the gate to 28-4.
It fell to Stiaan van Zyl - recently returned from South Africa duties - and keeper Rahil Ahmed to salvage the innings. Ahmed would play the finest innings of what has been an admittedly wretched season for him, and van Zyl would offer exemplary support as the pair put soaked up the pressure, draging Dosti back into the match with a 113-run 5th wicket partnership.
At 140-4 with 16 overs remaining and van Zyl and Ahmed looking settled the home crowd had good reason to be nervous at the drinks interval. The break seems to have broken van Zyl's concentration however, and an away swinger from Sohail Bhatti found his edge two balls later.
Hafeez followed him to the pavilion edging the first ball of the following over, and with the required rate edging toward 5 an over again the pressure began to tell. Ahmed was reprieved by David Woutersen on the midwicket rope in the 40th with 50 still needed only to run out his Bhatti three balls later, and then finally fell to Ingram for 73 courtesy a fine diving catch from Heggelman at deep backward square.
The Dosti tail struggled on manfully, keeping in touch with the required rate to the end, but were left with too much to do. Mahesh Hans would play around a straight on from Ingram three overs later, and the last wicket partnership of Malik and Mohammad would end ten runs later, Mohammad edging Bhatti through to Verhagen on the first ball of the 46th as Dosti fell 27 runs short.