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St Andrew’s School does it again!

By Franco Oberholzer , in Cricket | Featured Cricket | News , at 2025-01-19 Tags: , ,

The Free State and Phase Two Regional champions of the Free State, Northern Cape, and North West, St Andrew's School. Photo: St Andrew's School, Bloemfontein on Facebook.
The Free State and Phase Two Regional champions of the Free State, Northern Cape, and North West, St Andrew’s School. Photo: St Andrew’s School, Bloemfontein on Facebook.

There might be some echoes of “Build the man a statue” in the corridors of St Andrew’s School when FG Botha returns to school on Monday.

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Botha produced a scintillating man-of-the-match performance as Saints came out on top against their fellow Bloemfontein power, Grey College, in the final of the Schools SA20‘s second phase at the JB Marks Oval in Potchefstroom on Sunday, which brought together the top teams from the Free State, Northern Cape, and North West.

The all-rounder, batting at three went to the next level,with his batting, contributing the highest individual score of the weekend’s matches.

He needed only 51 deliveries to smash 74, with 40 of those coming from boundaries, made up of four sixes and four fours. Useful knocks from Reuben van Aarde (24), Naudé Botha (22), and Nikhil Sukraj (21*) further boosted the Saints innings as they tallied a healthy total of 182/4, which was also the highest team total of the event.

As if he hadn’t done enough with the bat, Botha went on to become the pick of his side’s bowlers, too. Sending down a full quota of four overs, he conceded only 23 runs, while snapping up two sticks. Grey College’s Pieter Smit played excellently. Reading the conditions well, he made a well-paced 57 runs from 47 balls.

His wicket, taken by Cullen Kakora (2/30) through a catch snaffled by Botha, was, however, the start of Grey College’s downfall. Lamla Mgedezi (22) and Henru de Wet (21), who couldn’t quite replicate his heroics of Friday’s and Saturday’s matches, tried valiantly but Saints’ tails were up and the rest of the bowlers chipped in with economical spells to restrict their neighbours to only 148/8.

It was a 34-run win for St Andrew’s and a second victory over Grey in a Schools SA20 final in  a few months.

Summarised scorecard

St Andrew’s School 182/4 (FG Botha 74, Reuben van Aarde 24, Naudé Botha 22, Nikhil Sukraj 21*; Edrich Hanekom 2/37); Grey College 148/8 (Pieter Smit 57, Lamla Mgedezi 22, Henru de Wet 21; FG Botha 2/23, Cullen Kakora 2/30). St Andrew’s School won by 34 runs.

Franco Oberholzer
error: Sorry ol' chap, those shenanigans are not permissible.