St Andrew’s School and Kingswood victorious in their ISCF opening matches
St Andrew’s School and Kingswood College opened their Standard Bank Independent Schools Cricket Festival (ISCF) accounts with comfortable victories over St John’s College and St George’s College (Harare) respectively on Friday in Pretoria.
St Andrew’s and St John’s locked horns at Cornwall Hill College, while Kingswood and St George’s crossed swords at St Alban’s.
St George’s College won the toss and elected to bowl first. Kingswood responded by putting 119/6 on the board. The Makhanda school then restricted St George’s to only 71/7 in 20 overs to register an emphatic 48-run victory.
Kingswood did not enjoy a great start. They lost two early wickets as their batsmen struggled to adapt to the slow pitch. At the end of the powerplay, they were on 29/2 and were in need of two batsmen who could stick around long enough to stitch together a double-digit partnership.
Alistair Knott and Ross Thompson duly added 30 runs for the third wicket. Their stand helped the Eastern Province side develop a rhythm, which they carried through to the end of their innings. Their next two partnerships added a combined 15 runs from 15 balls, but that did not negatively affect their progress.
Coach Andrew Birch‘s charges recovered with a 23-run sixth-wicket stand between Josh Loon and James Hobson, which was succeeded by an unbroken 32-run seventh-wicket partnership between Hobson and Matthew Spring.
David Louden and Jack Collett took the new ball for Kingswood and did well to bag two wickets in the powerplay to force St George’s onto the back foot. The Zimbabwean outfit batted at a slow rate and was on 21/2 after the first six overs of their reply.
The opening spells of Louden and Collet set the tone for the innings and St George’s was unable to generate enough momentum to challenge Kingswood’s total.
With Kingswood’s bowlers enjoying regular success, St George’s couldn’t put meaningful partnerships together. Their best was a 24-run seventh-wicket stand between Akash Singh and Blessing Muzanago.
Singh was the top-scorer for St George’s with 38 off 48 balls. The rest of the batting lineup perished for single-digit scores.
Louden was brilliant with the new ball for Kingswood, grabbing two wickets for 10 runs in four overs, while Daniel Jakins bagged two for 16 from his four.
About 25 minutes away, the toss went the way of St Andrew’s and Reuben van Aarde, their captain, elected to bowl first. That was a good decision. Gauteng had been subjected to rain for the past week, and that made the pitches sticky and slow.
The Saints’ bowlers made good use of the conditions to reduce St John’s to 49/5, which inhibited the Johannesburg side’s run scoring. Captain Alec Loveland led a bit of fight-back but he and his team struggled to gain a foothold in the match, and they were limited to 103/6 from their 20 overs.
St Andrews took 17.4 overs to reply with 106/5 and claim victory.
Cullen Kakora and Heindré Serfontein shared the new ball for St Andrew’s, and they kept the St John’s batsmen quiet in the powerplay, limiting them to 25/2 after the first six overs.
Alec Loveland, the top-scorer for St John’s, arrived at the crease after Malan du Plessis’ dismissal in the fifth over. He adapted well to the conditions, allowed the ball to come onto his bat, and looked in control while scoring a brisk 42 off 32 balls that featured three fours and a single six.
Loveland, though, struggled to find partners with whom to construct a substantial stand. Only one of the St John’s partnerships was worth more than 20 runs. That came when he and Aiden Barberrini (17*) combined for 35 runs for the sixth wicket. That didn’t take them far enough, however.
Serfontein was the pick of the bowlers for St Andrew’s with two wickets for 19 runs from his four overs. Johan Liebenberg and FG Botha also bagged a wicket each as they helped the Bloemfontein side take control. Cullen Kakora, with 1/11 in four overs, did a fine job for Saints.
St Andrew’s made a bright start to their chase with a 38-run opening stand between Naudé Botha and Andrew Sobiech, with Botha striking a run-a-ball 19 and Sobiech cracking a hasty 24 off 15. They were going at a brisk rate in the context of the match and the platform they laid neutralised the effects of a double strike by St John’s in the seventh over.
FG Botha (23) and Grové du Preez (25*) repaired the damage with a 30-run partnership that lifted St Andrew’s close to the finishing line.
Malan du Plessis almost single-handedly bowled St John’s back into the contest. However, he didn’t have enough runs to defend. Still, his return of three wickets for 12 runs from four overs was exceptional.
Scorecards
Kingswood College 119/6 (James Hobson 26*, Alistair Knott 20, Benjamin Muzanago 3/24, Tyrelle Zuze 2/14). St George’s College 71/7 (Akash Singh 38, Michael Mukori 9, David Louden 2/10, Daniel Jakins 2/16) Kingswood won by 48 runs.
St John’s College 103/6 (Alec Loveland 42, Aiden Barberrini 17, Heindré Serfontein 2/19, FG Botha 1/19). St Andrew’s School 106/5 (Grové du Preez 25, Andrew Sobiech 24, Malan du Plessis 3/12, Ethan Robinson1/23). St Andrew’s won by five wickets.
