Northwood a dark horse contender for Schools SA20 glory
Northwood School will fly the flag for KwaZulu-Natal at the Schools SA20 National Finals in Pretoria. The Knights were an unlikely provincial representative when the competition began in late 2024, but they earned their place with a string of strong performances.
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The Durban school went through a bit of a slump midway through the fourth term, when they looked like anything but contenders. All credit to the stayers’ line-up, their coaches, and management, however. They pulled off a remarkable turnaround by working on the team culture.
It brought them victory in the KZN Coastal final and they were joined by the runner-up, Glenwood High, at the KZN regional final in Pietermaritzburg. There, the two Durban sides faced Maritzburg College and Tuskers’ champions, Hilton College.
In their opening match, Northwood scored a closely-contested five-wicket win over Hilton, showing BMT when the contest became tight towards the end. They fell to Maritzburg College by just 12 runs in their second outing, but comfortably beat Glenwood by six wickets to secure a place in the title game.
Once again, it was a hard-fought contest, but Northwood batted with impressive focus to win with three balls to spare for the second time in two days against Hilton. The second time around, though, they won by seven wickets.
Within their victory in the final were the elements that have driven much of their success since the last term of 2024, beginning with the top four in their batting order – David de Bruyn, Tuswa Phetha, Ross McGlashan, and captain, Kyle White – who all made runs with the title on the line.
De Bruyn is solid up front and able to play an aggressive game. Phetha keeps it simple, but that is what makes him so effective. Often, he takes care of one end and enables his partners to play their shots.
McGlashan is a dashing left-hander who likes to go after the bowling. Once he gets going, he’s a dangerous customer. The captain, White, is a technically sound batsman. He tends to treat good balls with respect and go hard at poor balls, playing the game how it should be played.
Because of the many successes of the Northwood top-order, the batsmen to follow have, at times, been a little fragile, but the return of the big-hitting all-rounder Jamie Wimble from injury is a huge boost for the Knights.
While Northwood leans on their top four to steer them to success, others, like Alistair Duncan, Connor Leclezio, and Ben Cilliers, have also made useful contributions along the way. They, too, are capable of producing vital knocks.
The return of Wimble to take the new ball is fantastic news for Northwood. He doesn’t deal in express speed. Rather, he is accurate and consistently challenges batsmen at a lively enough pace.
Northwood’s bowling and fielding are, if anything, more reliable than their batting. The Knights won’t blast out any team, but they’ll always be at their opposition with accurate bowling and a strong effort in the field, which is aided by the astute captaincy of Kyle White.
They possess good variety in their attack, but the key to their success has often been their spin bowling, led by the left-armer Jordan Matthews, who has enjoyed an outstanding season. He’s a regular wicket-taker but often also extremely economical.
Ben Cilliers, an off-spinner, provides a good foil to Matthews and helps to tie down opposing batsmen, and he is usually good for a wicket or two or three.
Luke Allen, Thabiso Mtambo, Aiden Bauristhene, and Connor Leclezio will join Jamie Wimble as seam options, while David de Bruyn and Kyle White, maybe Hamza Amla and Tuswa Phetha, too, will supplement the frontline spinners.
Perhaps the strength of the Northwood team is that they are more than the sum of their parts. That word, “team”, is very much who they are and teamwork, especially in the cauldron of T20 cricket is vital. It is often the difference between winning and losing. That’s something the Knights proved by reversing their fortunes, with the Schools SA20 the stage on which they have done that.
They hope to continue to make their mark in the competition in Pretoria.
