Profile – Ombesa Matsha (St Stithians College)
Ombesa Matsha has lofty ambitions. The St Stithians College learner has set his sights on earning a place at the Cubs Week, being selected for South Africa u19, and developing into one of the top five batters in the country in the next two years.
A left-hander, he is firmly on track, if his recent performances are anything to go by.
At the start of the third term, Matsha demonstrated his aptitude for red ball cricket at the Fasken Time Cricket Festival, hosted by St David’s Marist Inanda, scoring three half-centuries in succession. He finished the showpiece with 220 runs in three innings for an average of 73, which left him among the top five run-scorers at the festival.
“Ombesa is a wonderful player. He has a well-rounded game and values his wicket,” Wim Jansen, the St Stithians Director of Cricket, told SuperSport Schools Plus.
A few weeks later, on 12 and 13 September, the Grade 10 learner stamped his authority at the CSA u17 camp, held in Irene. Opening the batting, he tallied 188 runs in two matches for an average of 94 at a strike rate of 96.9. FG Botha was the next-best batter with 105 runs in two innings.
“My cricket role models are Yashasvi Jaiswal and David Miller,” the teenager, whom Jansen described as a fearless match-winner, shared.
Jansen’s assessment of Matsha as a match-winner isn’t based only on what the 16-year-old has done for Saints with the bat. Matsha has been leading teams to success since he was eight.
In 2017, he flayed an unbeaten 149 to lead Laerskool Jan Cilliers to victory in a Junior tournament at Trinity House. He was also crowned the Best Batsman of the tournament, a sign of things to come.
Three years later, Matsha dominated with the bat at the Central Gauteng Lions‘ (CGL) u12 tournament by plundering three centuries, which included a highest score of 225 not out.
He maintained his huge appetite for “big” runs in representative cricket for the CGL’s u11 side in 2019 and the u13s in 2021 and 2022. It was enough to convince St Stithians to offer the youngster a scholarship. Matsha also played for the Lions’ u15s in 2023, was a member of the u16A side in 2024, and travelled to the 2024 Coca Cola Khaya Majola Week with the CSA Invitation team.
Jansen said Matsha isn’t afraid of high pace and is happy to take on aggressive bowlers who try to instil fear into top-order batters. That is what he did at the u17 camp.
Matsha led the Markram XI from the front and scored a brilliant 87 from 96 balls in an innings in which no other batter on his side reached 20. His crucial knock lifted the Markram XI to 209 and laid the foundation for a 28-run victory over the Bavuma XI.
The opener then scored a 98-ball 101 in the second match. The story of that encounter was similar to the first tie: Matsha played the role of a lone ranger as he held the Markram XI innings together while wickets tumbled around him. When he was dismissed after spending 36 overs in the middle, the Markram XI’s innings collapsed. Unfortunately for him, his one-man effort wasn’t enough to save his team from a 56-run defeat.
“He has grown a lot over the past 18 months,” Malibongwe Maketa, the SA u19 coach, said. “I sat down with him after the first match at the u17 camp. He showed great awareness of the opposition’s bowling plans and what approach the match required. He is no longer just trying to get runs by any means necessary.”
According to Maketa, who met the youngster when it seemed as if he was trying to launch every second ball over the ropes, Matsha now knows how to formulate a game plan to suit conditions. The left-hander is happy to shelve his best shots if the situation demands it.
To drive that point home, Maketa said that in both of Matsha’s innings at the u17 camp, the teenager rotated the strike well, was happy to soak up the pressure, and ready to pounce on the bad ball.
Saints’ Director of Cricket, Wim Jansen, would have been pleased to hear that. “We worked on various aspects of his game over the past few months,” he said. “In particular, strike rotation and his game against spin.”
Matsha’s success against spinners and his ability to take control of the middle overs was helped by the months he spent with Scarborough College as part of an exchange programme between St Stithians and the Yorkshire school. There, he learned to play the ball late and he improved his striking through the square region.
“The time he spent in the UK took him out of his comfort zone and didn’t just help him as a cricketer, but also as a person,” Jansen said.
The youngster is one of many St Stithians learners who have benefitted from the programme, which is now in its 12th year. Others who have benefitted from it include Proteas’ Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, and Lhuan-dre Pretorius. If that is used as a predictor of the future, the odds are in favour of Matsha achieving his dreams.
While abroad and playing for Wykeham in the Scarborough Evening Cricket League Division A, he struck a stunning 112 off 62 balls to help his club secure top spot with a seven-wicket win over Flixton, their title rivals. That match-winning knock underlined his potential.
“One of our core values is to back our guys. If they are good enough, they are old enough,” Jansen said.
“Ombesa showed that he was good enough when he was in Grade 9, and we backed him to perform. He has been outstanding since then.”
