Elston bowls Jeppe to victory, Muir bats Michaelhouse to win over PBHS
Christopher Elston grabbed a four-wicket haul to help Jeppe High School for Boys register a comprehensive 98-run win over Northwood at Howick High in a T20 clash at the Oppenheimer Michaelmas Cricket Week on Tuesday.
A short distance away, Ethan Muir scored an unbeaten 53-ball 58 to help Michaelhouse to a 13-run win over Pretoria Boys High on the Roy Gathorne Oval.
Jeppe batted first and put up a total of 166/8 in their 20 overs. Their bowlers then caught fire and ran through the Northwood batting line-up to knock them over for just 68 runs in 15.1 overs.
The bowling massacre was led by Elston, who captured four wickets for 19 runs in four overs. He was introduced into the attack in the seventh over and delivered an outstanding four-over spell that saw him take a wicket in each over he bowled.
His first wicket was that of Mfanafuthi Shange, who top-scored for Northwood with 18. Shange had seen out the storm brought on by Sipho Potsane, Matthew Costa, Luke Kent-Brown, and Jeremiah Marshall, which caused a massive Northwood batting collapse in the powerplay.
In the first six overs, five batsmen fell for a combined 12 runs. Northwood’s sub-standard batting effort was reflected by the fact that Alistair Duncan, with 13, was the only other batsman to reach double figures.
Earlier in the day, Jeppe’s batsmen had produced a stop-start innings, due to their loss of wickets in clumps. The only time there was some respite from that rollercoaster ride was when they had Aiden Reyneke and Ryan Young in the middle. They were the only Jeppe batsmen to score more than 30 runs, and they shared a 66-run third-wicket partnership that spanned 7.4 overs.
Their partnership saw the Gauteng side through the middle overs and put them in a position to post a winning score. Munib Ayob and Keegan Caxeiro also made important contributions, with both scoring 24.
At Michaelhouse, Ethan Muir hit five fours and a six in his unbeaten 58 off 53 deliveries to lead the home team to a hard-fought win over Pretoria Boys High.
Muir arrived at the crease in the second over, after Sebastien Hofmeyr had been dismissed by Timothy Tattersall for one. The number three batsman pitched his tent and saw the innings through, shepherding Michaelhouse to 142/4. Then, the KZN side successfully defended their total, restricting Boys High to 129/6 from their 20 overs.
After Hofmeyr’s dismissal, Muir shared a 21-run second-wicket partnership with Michael Spencer (17), which steadied the innings and lasted until the fifth over. It was succeeded by a 91-run match-winning third-wicket stand between Muir and Graydon Leslie, who waltzed along at a healthy scoring rate of 126.39. During that stand, Leslie carved five fours in his 42 off 33 balls.
Later in the day, when Michaelhouse was in the field, Jean-Luc Rey took two early wickets to force Pretoria Boys High onto the back foot. The new ball bowler picked up two, one in the second over and another in the fourth, to reduce the Northern Gauteng side to a precarious 8/2.
Timothy Gordon had his work cut out for him when he made his way to the crease following the fall of the second wicket. He did a good job of steadying the innings, with a 38-run third-wicket partnership with Luke Marshall (17). However, Pretoria Boys High’s most important partnership was Gordon’s 75-run fourth-wicket stand with Adam Cannata.
Unfortunately, the duo was unable to score quickly enough. They were consistently behind the required run rate, and when Cannata was dismissed after 18.3 overs, Boys High still needed 21 runs from nine balls. It proved to be a mountain too high to climb.
Gordon gave it his all, finishing with 54 from 41 deliveries, which included five fours and three sixes.
Jean-Luc Rey was the pick of the bowlers for Michaelhouse with two wickets for 13 runs in four overs. Ross Moller, Harry Vickery, and Radhesh Jhilmeet bagged a wicket each.
Summarised Scorecards
Jeppe 166/8 (Ryan Young 37, Aiden Reyneke 32; Kyle White 2/21, Nqobani Mokoena 2/25, Mason Storm 2/25) Northwood 68/10 (Mfanafuthi Shange 18, Alistair Duncan 13; Christopher Elston 4/19, Luke Brown 1/2) Jeppe won by 98 runs.
Michaelhouse 142/4 (Ethan Muir 58, Graydon Leslie 42; Nicholas Rossouw 1/16) Pretoria Boys High 129/6 (Timothy Gordon 54, Adam Cannata 37; Jean-Luc Rey 2/13, Ross Moller 1/15) Michaelhouse won by 13 runs.
