It was an outcome which even a contributor to The Boy’s Own Paper wouldn’t have dared invent.

Chasing VOC Rotterdam’s modest total of 168, Voorburg went into the final over of their Hoofdklasse semi-final on Saturday with the scores level, needing just one run to take them into next week’s final. Tim de Leede was on 49 not out, but he was at the non-striker’s end as Xavier Doherty prepared to bowl the last six balls, or however would be need to settle the match.

Gijs Bins, on 21, was facing, but he was bowled by Doherty's first ball. Off the second, David Dormits skied a drive and was caught by Asaf Altaf, and Voorburg were 168 for nine. Doherty, moreover, was on a hat-trick.

The batsmen crossed while the catch was taken, bringing De Leede on strike and tipping the balance Voorburg’s way once more. But he missed Doherty’s next ball, was struck on the pad, and saw the umpire’s finger go up. Incredibly, Doherty had completed the hat-trick to finish the match and earn VOC a replay on Sunday.

Never can a game of cricket have ended in more dramatic circumstances.

It was a match which was tightly-fought all the way, always likely to produce an exciting ending – even if nobody could have predicted what actually happened.

After VOC won the toss and took first use of the pitch, both openers were dismissed without scoring to give Voorburg a dream start. But that brought together Bas Zuiderent and Xavier Doherty and, inevitably in the context of the season, they swung the game back VOC’s way with a steady 78-run partnership.

Zuiderent was eventually dismissed for 31, but then youth international Karel Vieler kept Doherty company as he made his way to a crucial half-century for his side. The VOC coach finished with 68, bowled by Mohammed Rafi, but with nobody else able to make a really sizeable contribution, the home side were all out off the last ball of the penultimate over.

Safaraz Gondel was again the most successful of the Voorburg bowlers with three for 35.

Voorburg began their reply as if intent on self-destruction, both John Sist and coach Ryan Le Loux being run out by the time 38 was on VOC’s new scoreboard, but Gondel and De Leede batted sensibly until Gondel was out for 29.

Gradually, painfully, De Leede guided the total through a series of modest partnerships, until with nine overs left Voorburg needed 43 to win. Bins joined De Leede, and together they worked their way towards the target.

Ten were needed with three left, but then Doherty ensured that the pressure grew further by bowling a maiden. Nine came off the penultimate over, so the scores were level and everything was set for what surely turned out to be the most sensational ending to a match in the history of Dutch cricket.

Under the competition rules, the tie means that the players will have to do it all again on Sunday. Unfortunately perhaps, there is no mention in those rules of a switch of venue, so VOC will again have home advantage in the replay.

If the other semi-final, between VRA Amsterdam and Quick Haag in Amstelveen, could not compete with the almost ridiculously melodramatic events in Rotterdam, it nevertheless produced an enthralling match which was much closer than the eventual six-wicket margin suggested.

It was, in many ways, a tale of two partnerships, a stand of 122 between Sean Clingeleffer and Henk-Jan Mol which took Quick from 34 for two to 156 for three, and one of 106 for VRA’s fourth wicket between Ryan Maron and Peter Borren. The difference was that VRA were already on 74 for three when Borren came to the wicket, and by the time Maron was caught leg-before by Edgar Schiferli, they were within 35 runs of Quick’s total of 215 for seven.

Darrin Murray won the toss for VRA and elected to field, and it looked like a pretty good decision when Joost Leemhuis had removed both openers with just 34 on the board – of which Darron Reekers had made 31 by the time he holed out to Adeel Raja at long-on.

But this was a very good batsmen’s wicket, and despite two half-hour interruptions for rain Clingeleffer and Mol never looked in trouble as they steadily built their partnership. Clingeleffer, working the ball all around the ground, reached his fifty off 53 balls, but soon afterwards he lofted Raja to long-off, where Maron took a good catch. Seven runs later the same fieldsman produced the direct hit which disposed of Mol for a well-made, if more circumspect, 64.

Quick were now 163 for four with more than ten overs left, but VRA managed to concede just 49 runs in the final ten, picking up three more wickets in the process. Leemhuis’s two for 20 were the best figures, but by collecting two each Borren and Raja maintained the pressure and ensured that Quick never really managed to accelerate.

215 seemed a little short of a demanding total, but when Somesh Kohli took two for 2 in his first five overs and VRA were suddenly 14 for two, an upset seemed on the cards.

Maron, though, was timing the ball as well as he has done for much of the latter part of the season, and he and Murray set about bringing the defending champions back into the game.

Their stand of 60 shifted the balance markedly, but just as the match threatened to get away from Quick, who had lost allrounder Geert Maarten Mol to a dislocated shoulder suffered while fielding on the boundary, Jeroen Brand came on and tempted Murray into nicking the ball to Clingeleffer behind the stumps.

Borren joined Maron, and began by hitting Brand for three boundaries. But then came an incident which was in many ways the fulcrum of the game: Borren edged Reekers to Job van Bunge at slip, and the fieldsman dived forward to claim the catch.

Convinced that the ball hadn’t carried, Borren stood his ground, while the Quick players were equally certain that it had. Umpire Hartong went to consult his colleague Ruchtie at square leg, and after some discussion turned down the appeal. The disgust of the Quick players was clear enough.

It took a few minutes to get the game restarted, and the controversy seemed to have had an adverse effect on the Quick players’ concentration. Borren, on the other hand, appeared all the more determined to finish the job, and although he gave a couple of chances along the way, he soon began to catch up on Maron.

The VRA coach had reached his fifty off 84 balls, and went on to make 72 before Schiferli came back into the attack and trapped him leg-before with his first ball. That made it 180 for four, and Quick perhaps sensed that it wasn’t all over yet.

But Andy Gilder, playing his fifth Hoofdklasse match of the season, disposed of any nerves by hitting Schiferli to the midwicket boundary, and he and Borren knocked off the remaining runs without further loss.

Borren’s not-out 72, made off 96 balls, was by far his best innings of the season for his club, notwithstanding the controversy with which it began.

So VRA will now get their chance in next week’s final to complete their third successive championship. All that remains is to determine who their opponents will be.