Campbell shines as St David’s thrashes Monument
Hayden Campbell struck an outstanding half-century to inspire St David’s Marist Inanda to an emphatic 59-run victory over Monument in their Johnny Waite Trophy match at St David’s on Tuesday afternoon.
The victory was bittersweet for St David’s. Despite it being comprehensive, it turned out to be slightly less than the margin they needed to qualify for the semifinals of the competition.
King Edward VII School (KES), with whom they tied on points, will face Jeppe High School for Boys in the semis thanks to a superior net run rate.
Logan Weetman, the Monument captain, followed the wisdom of statistics when it came to the toss. Five of the past six games at the La Rosey Oval had been won by the chasing team, with only one going the way of the side that batted first. He called correctly and asked the hosts to bat first.
Early on, it looked like a good call, as St David’s stumbled, but they found their feet and galloped to 180/8.
In reply, Monument lost their way in the powerplay and never rediscovered it, fumbling their way to 74/7 in 13.4 overs. Then, the heavens opened up and rain halted play. That led to the result being calculated using the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method.
Campbell’s aggressive innings lasted just 34 balls, during which he lashed three fours and five sixes in a brilliant 60. The hosts needed someone to pull them out of the quicksand after they found themselves in trouble on 37/4 after 5.3 overs. Three of those four wickets had fallen in eight balls.
Caleb Dos Santos closed out the fifth over with two wickets in two deliveries to send St David’s reeling. Then, Innocent Ramerafe backed up that double strike with the dismissal of Kamogelo Phiri midway through the sixth over.
Campbell and Samrat Basu steadied the ship with a 107-run fifth-wicket partnership from only 67 deliveries. Basu, the St David’s captain, belted five fours and four maximums in his 43-ball 60. Their partnership helped catapult the hosts from 144/5 after 16.4 overs to 180/8 only 20 balls later.
Jason Rowles returned to the St David’s starting lineup after his successful sojourn with the South Africa u19 side against England u19. In four Youth Test innings, he scored three half-centuries to earn himself the Player of the Series award. However, the 16-year-old didn’t impact the St David’s innings, scoring only one off eight balls.
You can’t keep a good man down, however, and Rowles made up for his batting miss with an excellent bowling performance. Taking the new ball with Christopher Emslie, it took Rowles only three balls to strike as he spun a web around the Monument batsmen.
The visitors had no answers to his guile. In his first two overs, he recorded 12 dot balls, conceded a single run via a wide delivery, and bagged two wickets. He finished with an outstanding four wickets for a single run from three overs, registering a mind-blowingly low economy rate of 0.33.
Monument’s batsmen did not fare much better against Emslie’s left-arm pace. They were on 6/3 after the powerplay, which left them requiring an unlikely 174 runs to win in 14 overs at a rate of 12.5 runs an over. Despite not taking any wickets, Emslie was almost as frugal as Rowles, conceding only three runs in two overs.
Weetman, who strode out to the middle in the third over, appeared to be facing a different bowling attack on a different surface. He was particularly destructive against Jared Stern, bludgeoning four sixes in a single over off the pacer, as he powered his way to an unbeaten 50 off 26 balls.
Ibrahim Haffejee was the only other Monument batsman to reach double figures, chipping in with a run-a-ball 15.
Scorecards
St David’s Marist Inanda 180/8 (Hayden Campbell 60, Samrat Basu 60, Innocent Ramarafe 3/24, Caleb Dos Santos 2/18). Hoërskool Monument 74/7 (Logan Weetman 50*, Ibrahim Haffejee 15, Jason Rowles 4/1, Morteza Manack 2/10). St David’’s won by 59 runs (DLS).
