Mathye on fire for Ben Vorster to close out their annual cricket week in Tzaneen
The penultimate day of the Ben Vorster cricket week delivered some exciting cricket and interesting results.
The hosts managed to round of an impressive fight back after a disappointing display with the bat. The Black Caps only managed 149 before being bundled out in only 26 overs with Anton Lourens (39, 44b) and Njabulo Maseko (39, 45b) steering their team to what seemed to be a sub-bar total.
After the innings break it was clear that the Black Cap bowlers had other ideas and paceman Nsuku Mathye lead the fightback with an impressive spell of fast bowling claiming 4/42. He was well backed up by his captain Ruben Vosloo who pitched in with figures of 3/20 as the hosts defended their low score to come out on top with 15 runs.
Pretoria-Noord claimed their first victory of the week after coming out on top against Vrede with 26 runs in another low scoring affair. The men from Pretoria only managed 159 before being all out. Mark Gornman (36, 42b) toiled away on a slow and low wicket to top score for his team. As in the other low scoring match the second innings proved much harder for the batters.
Ewan Luus (48, 61b), laid a solid foundation with the bat for Vrede falling two short of his half century and after his departure things went pair shaped for the team from the Free State as Ulrich Breytenbach bagged three scalps for only 18 runs and Michael Flanagan joined the party with three scalps of his own (3/31) to guide Pretoria-Noord to a 26-run victory.
The annual price giving dinner was held on the same night with players being rewarded for their good performances throughout the week. Local hero Eldred Hawken attended as guest speaker to provide words of encouragement and share his experience built up from playing at franchise level for the last 10 years.
The fiery fast bowler from Ben Vorster Nsuku Mathye was named as bowler of the week claiming 12 wickets with one five-wicket haul to boot in three matches over the course of the week. The accolade for batsman of the week belonged to Dreyer Marnuae from Hoërskool Wesvalia scoring a total of 235 runs at an average of 78.33 including back-to-back hundreds at the start of the week.
Summarised Scorecards:
Ben Vorster 149/10 (Anton Lourens 39, Njabulo Maseko 39; Eduardo Dreyer 4/24, Louis Koen 3/32, Lian Henning 2/39); Wesvalia 134/10 (Luan Vermeulen 53, Dreyer Marnuae 20; Nsuku Mathye 4/42, Ruben Vosloo 3/20, Njabulo Maseko 2/47). Ben Vorster won by 15 runs.
Pretoria-Noord 159/10 (Mark Gornman 36, Dean du Toit 27; Charl Cilliers 6/34, Wynand Engelbrecht 2/32); Vrede 133/10 (Ewan Kuus 48, Charl Cilliers 35; Ulrich Breytenbach 3/18, Michael Flanagan 3/31). Pretoria-Noord won by 26 runs.
Potchefstroom Volkskool 126/10 (Eduan van der Merwe 38, Herman Hesse 27, Themba Sontjane 20; Douw Jacobs 3/20, Tiaan Crowther 3/32); Lichtenburg 129/1 (Liam Swart 54, Douw Jacobs 48; Eduan van der Merwe 1/36). Lichtenburg won by 9 wickets.
Waterkloof u15 299/10 (Rico van der Walt 95, Hershelle van Loggerenberg 50, Franco Schmidt 30; Angelo Cloete 3/56, Wayden Mondzinger 2/16, Nathan Howe 2/24, Curtleigh Koetzee 2/62); Lydenburg u18 (Angelo Cloete 24, Kyle van der Berg 24, Blake Mouton 24; Christiaan Hugget 3/27, Luan Ferreira 2/15, Malan van der Berg 2/26). Waterkloof u15 won by 168 runs.
