KZN big guns sweep to big wins in Switch Schools SA20
Northwood vs Ashton Ballito
Fresh off a strong showing at the Wildeklawer T20 in Pretoria, Northwood swept to a 102-run Switch Schools SA20 Volume Two win over Ashton Ballito on the Robin Smith Oval, in Durban, on Thursday.
After the toss went their way, the Knights opted to bat first, but matters didn’t exactly go smoothly, with James Wright and Andre Botha enjoying early successes with the ball, which included getting rid of the hard-hitting duo of Thomas Oosthuizen and Jamie Wimble for ducks.
At the top of the order, Ross McGlashan cracked four fours and a six in tallying 36 from 32 balls. He was the fourth man out, which left Northwood on 69/4 in the ninth over. Then, when James Searle followed for one, the Knights found themselves on 77/5 halfway through their innings.
Josh Mills and Keegan Reeves stopped the slide, however, by adding 58 for the sixth wicket. Wright got rid of Mills in the 18th over for the top score of the innings, 46 from 39 deliveries, five of which he rerouted for four.
Reeves ended with 16 and Max Nicholson was 14 not out when the hosts completed their 20 overs on 152/8.
Andre Botha picked up 2/11 in two, while James Wright returned 2/23 in four, but the Ashton let themselves down by bowling 24 wides and conceding 30 extras.
It was, nonetheless, a solid effort in the field from the visitors. Unfortunately, for the north coast school, their batting performance failed to match the standard of their bowling. They lasted only 15.5 overs and were bowled out for 50.
Opening batsman, Alex Lawrence, top-scored with 13, but after him every other score was in single figures. The primary reason for that was Hamza Amla, who laid waste to Ashton’s batting with a spectacular spell of 3.5 overs that brought him an eye-opening 6/5.
Three others picked up a wicket each and a run out helped, too. Lawrence’s 13 was matched by the 13 extras conceded by the Knights. Still, they only just made it to a half-century.
Westville Boys’ High vs Kloof High
On Bowden’s, the home team, Westville Boys’ High mauled Kloof High‘s bowlers after the Griffin had slipped to 27/2 in the third over. After that, the visitors enjoyed no more successes as Aidan Baudach and Tristin Delvin combined for an unbroken third wicket partnership of 217 in 17.2 overs.
Delvin top-scored with 103 from just 55 balls, eight of which he smashed for six, and another five which were sent to the boundary. Baudach also reached triple figures, making exactly 100 not out from only 62 balls, making it the rare occasion when two batsmen scored a century in the same innings of a 20-over match.
Aiden Lorentz, like the other Kloof High bowlers was expensive, but he picked up the only two wickets to go down, finishing with 2/50 from his four overs.
The visitors, then, found the going out in the middle a whole lot tougher than Westville had found it to be. They mustered only 62/9 from their 20 overs, with Aiden Lorentz making 15 and Matt Sheppard 11, but that was it for scores in double figures.
Misbah Nair put the skids under Kloof, snaring 3/7 in three, while Aarin Rasmussen claimed 2/9 in four as Kloof, after losing their ninth wicket in the 17th over, held on to see out their 20 overs. In the end, though, Westville won by a huge margin of 182 runs.
Kearsney College vs Thomas More College
Thomas More College had scored a confidence-boosting 15-run win over Curro Hillcrest on Wednesday, but Kearsney College showed the visitors that there are levels to the game as they roared to a 10-wicket victory on the AH Smith Oval, in Botha’s Hill.
The visitors chose to bat first and did a decent job of it, tallying 111/5. They were prevented from a bigger total, though, by a stuttering start, which saw Thomas More in trouble on 29/4 in the ninth over.
Sebastian Rizzato and Matthew Naicker fought back effectively with a 49-run partnership for the fifth wicket in 5.2 overs, which ended when Rizzato was caught by James Bishop off Matt Rice for 28 from only 18 balls, which included three sixes and two fours.
Naicker went on to make 40 not out. He had faced 34 deliveries and struck five fours and a six.
Only James Bishop, with 2/9 from two, picked up more than one wicket as Kearsney employed seven bowlers.
The difference between the teams was revealed when Kearsney batted. They needed only 7.4 overs to overhaul Thomas More’s 111, with Asher Hollister and Aaron Blackburn powering their side to victory.
Hollister, who had missed a whole lot of cricket matches while proving himself to be one of the best young golfers in the country, showed what the Kearsney 1st XI had been missing by taking only 29 balls to score an undefeated 66, which featured 12 fours and a six.
Blackburn, meanwhile, was even more brutal in his assault on the Thomas More bowlers, ending with 50 not out from 17 deliveries. He smashed four sixes and five fours and allowed only two dot balls.
Michael Fourie gave up 20 runs in two overs, which wasn’t great, but the next best of the visitors’ bowlers went for 15 an over as Kearsney’s openers dominated.
Summarised scorecards
Northwood 152/8 (Josh Mills 46, Ross McGlashan 36, Extras 30; Andre Botha 2/11, James Wright 2/23); Ashton Ballito 50/10 (Hamza Amla 6/5). Northwood won by 102 runs.
Westville Boys’ High 244/2 (Tristin Delvin 103*, Aidan Baudach 100*, Aiden Lorentz 2/50); Kloof High 62/9 (Misbah Nair 3/7, Aarin Rasmussen 2/9). Westville Boys’ High won by 182 runs.
Thomas More College 111/5 (Matthew Naicker 40*, Sebastian Rizzato 28; James Bishop 2/9); Kearsney College 117/0 (Asher Hollister 62*, Aaron Blackburn 50*). Kearsney College won by 10 wickets.
