Affies cruise to 122-run over the White Caps
Pretoria Boys’ High School’s long dry spell in the Pretoria League continued, as they struggled to keep up with long term rivals Affies failing to chase down a competitive score of 274 runs.
Affies coming off a 62-run loss against Paul Roos Gimnasium on Saturday, were eager to
The day started off with Affies winning the toss and opting to bat first on Hofmeyer Oval, with overhead conditions looking somewhat menacing, as dark grey clouds covered the Pretoria skies.
The Boys’ High bowlers would have fancied their chances against the top order, with the new ball in years gone by doing bits up front. However, this was not the case Affies openers started well despite the conditions, starting proceedings with an opening stand of 138 runs from 154 balls.
Wicket-keeper batsmen and captain Lukas Janse Van Rensburg led from the front scoring a valiant 89 runs off 99 balls, which included some crisply hit boundaries. He was well aided by fellow opener Jorich Van Schalkwyk who notched up a well played 44 off 70 balls.
Middle-order batter Janco Purchase’s rich vain of batting form continued as he scored another half-century this season striking at 115.62 runs per ball, ending up on 74 runs from 64 balls, before getting caught on the deep extra cover boundary.
Boys High’s bowlers struggled to find their lines, as Affies went about scoring at 5.57 runs per over. Pick of the bowlers was Jenson Breetzke picking up figures of 10 runs from his six overs.
Chasing down a competitive total, the home side would have felt confident despite the difficult season with the bat, playing in familiar conditions on a large field with plenty of singles and two’s on offer.
The chase started slowly, with Boys High scoring 29 runs from 10.1 overs, before Luke Marshall knicking off and was caught in the slips from the bowling of Vihan Pretorius, which was the start of mini-collapse.
The fourteenth over saw the White Caps, losing a further two wickets, with the score sitting at 44/3, after losing Adam Cannata to a run-out.
With wickets tumbling at regular intervals, the equation became difficult for the lower-order to chase down what became a very intimidating total. Tim Paulus 20 (29b) and Patrick Mouton 18 (25b) hung around each chipping in with starts.
Medium pacer Petrus Rautenbach picked up figures 3/33 from is full quota of ten overs and bowled well in tandem with the rest of the bowlers, building pressure from his end.
Pretoria Boys’ will be hoping to bounce back after a string of losses as they come face-to-face with Cornwall College in the upcoming weeks, who have shown that they are not to be underestimated as they recently beat Affies by 28 runs.
Summarised Scorecard:
Affies 274/7 from 50 overs (Lukas Janse Van Rensburg 89, Janco Purchase 74, Jorich Van Schalkwyk 44 Extras: 26; Johan Coetzer 2/60, Jenson Breetzke 1/10); Pretoria Boys’ High School 152/10 from 38.5 overs (Marc Van Der Merwe 21, Tim Paulus 20, Extras: 18; Petrus Rautenbach 3/33, Matthew Seymore 2/9) Affies won by 122 runs.
Teams:
Pretoria Boys High School: Adam Cannata, Akhil Joshi, Callum Croome, Cayden Cromarty, Connor Hall*, Johan Coetzer, Justin Tattersall, Keagan Thiele, Marc Van Der Merwe, Nicholas Rossouw, Reice Kruger.
Affies: Andru Van Zyl, Divan De Villiers, Heinrich Muller, Janco Purchase, Jorich Van Schalkwyk, Lukas Janse Van Rensburg*, Matthew Seymore, Petrus Rautenbach, Ruben Groenewald, Vihan Pretorius, Xavier De Wet.
