One thing is certain: the decision to introduce play-offs in the Hoofdklasse has made the competition more exciting than it would otherwise have been. Three weeks to go, and under the old rules it would now have been a two-horse race between VRA Amsterdam and VOC Rotterdam; as it is, a further six teams have at least an outside chance of finishing in the final four, while for two of them, relegation cannot be ruled out either.

VRA go into the final weeks of the season comfortable in the knowledge that they cannot finish lower than second, and are therefore guaranteed home advantage in the semi-finals, while VOC need just one more win to achieve the same position. That would ensure that the semi-finals would be played on grass, weather permitting, even if the final will not.

VOC also know that they can top the competition at the end of the home-and-away series if they win at least one more of their last three games than the leaders. They face a couple of tricky fixtures, however, starting this Sunday with a potentially tough assignment at Voorburg.

They survived a terrible start against VVV last week, and will surely feel that their leading batsmen will not be shot out as quickly again, while the fact that they were rescued by Daan van Everdingen and the lower order will have done no harm to team morale. Their attack, too, remains a considerable force, and with Koen van Everdingen emerging as a third member of an impressive spin department alongside Xavier Doherty and Robbie de Widt, they can afford to be confident.

Third-placed Voorburg’s resurgence has relied to a great extent on the batting of Ryan Le Loux (249 runs in his last four innings) and Tim de Leede (164 in his last three), and they will be looking, as always, to the rest of the batsmen to make a greater contribution if they are to mount a really serious challenge to VOC.

Their attack, on the other hand, is well-balanced and varied, and they have every incentive to win this match, knowing that victory would give them a very good chance indeed of reaching the play-offs.

VRA will welcome back captain Darrin Murray and vice-captain Peter Borren for their journey across Amstelveen to take on VVV Amsterdam. The injury to Eric Szwarczynski will necessitate some adjustments to the top of the batting order, and the Amsterdam side will have taken some comfort from the performances of Adeel Raja (obviously relishing the greater responsibility of captaincy) and Garth Brown in the win over ACC last Sunday.

With coach Ryan Maron and Tjade Groot also batting well, the leaders should be able to make enough runs against VVV, but doubts remain about their attack, especially if Borren’s knee injury prevents him from bowling in the middle part of the innings.

VVV have lost their last four matches, and have slipped to within a few percentage points of the bottom of the table. They have to win at least one of their final matches, but face a demanding schedule, meeting three sides who are all in the top four (not to mention VOC last week!).

Rizwan Akram’s return from injury is a plus, but the loss of coach Mohammed Hafeez is a blow, even though Rauf Wain is a not inconsiderable replacement. The suspension of wicketkeeper Baber Bhatti was more bad news, but at least Mudassar Bukhari will be back from international duty for the VRA game.

Back in a winning vein at last, HCC are at home to Excelsior ’20 Schiedam, who at the pivotal point of a season which could still theoretically see them either reach the play-offs or plunge into the Eerste Klasse. Successive wins against VRA and Quick Haag have eased whatever fears of relegation that HCC may have had, and with coach Shane Deitz returning from a one-match suspension HCC can again concentrate on a semi-final spot.

They will also be looking for revenge against Excelsior, whose victory over them in the first round was a crucial element in their mid-season decline. Excelsior’s fortunes depend too much on a small number of players, but they, too, will welcome their captain, Marcel Schewe, back from suspension and will, like their opponents, know that whoever loses this match can probably forget any chance of the play-offs.

The arrival of Rashid Amin has had the expected effect on the attack, but they need more consistency from Daan van Bunge and more support for coach Mark Cleary from the batting generally if they are to make enough runs to challenge most other sides in the competition.

With Maurits Jonkman having gained a well-earned place in the Dutch side to face Bermuda next week and with Andrew Murphy proving a more than adequate replacement for the injured Mark Jonkman and Bernard Loots also taking wickets, the HCC attack is among the most effective in the Hoofdklasse.

Two other sides who know that another defeat will effectively end their ambitions to reach the play-offs, Hermes-DVS Schiedam and HBS Den Haag meet at Sportpark Harga. Hermes have a little more breathing-space than their guests, who could also slip into the relegation zone if they lose – although they have the comfort of knowing that they play their last game against ACC.

The return of coach Gareth Hopkins from international duty with New Zealand A will make a big difference to HBS, although his innings last week wasn’t enough to save them from defeat against Voorburg. Billy Stelling had a good double in that game, but both will need plenty of support if HBS are to win what seems certain to be a tight game.

Both sides are probably stronger in bowling than in batting, and it would not be a surprise if this turned out to be a fairly low-scoring match, which could go either way. From a Hermes point of view, it would be a good moment for Pankaj Joshi to produce his first really decisive innings of the summer.

Quick’s defeat by HCC last week has again opened up the possibility of their missing out on the semi-final place which on paper should be a virtual certainty, but they face bottom-placed ACC this Sunday, and will take on VVV in the final round. (In between, they are at home to VRA.)

ACC probably need to win at least two of their last three games if they are to have a realistic chance of avoiding a rapid return to the Eerste Klasse, but even on their own wicket Quick are the toughest of the three opponents they still have to meet.

Still, the Quick batting evidently struggled against HCC last Sunday, and even if the ACC attack does not have the same bite, Chris Slattery, Jan Balk and Mohsin Ghaznavi are a pretty strong seam battery, with the spin of Zulfiqar Ahmed and Rehan Younis providing back-up.

The ability of the ACC batsmen to cope with Quick’s bowling, on the other hand, raises a big question-mark, and with Bas van der Heijde still out through injury ACC will need Slattery and Scott Fraser to get among the runs if they are to have any chance of winning.

This week’s guesses: Quick Haag, VRA, HCC, VOC, Hermes-DVS.