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Waterkloof faces stiff Bloemfontein test

By Franco Oberholzer , in Cricket | Featured Cricket | News , at 2025-01-30 Tags: , , ,

Photo: St Andrew’s School, Bloemfontein on Facebook.

Playing at the homes of Grey College and St Andrew’s School is seldom easy, and playing both of them on consecutive days is an even greater challenge.

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That is what awaits Hoërskool Waterkloof when they travel down to the City of Roses for their annual derbies against Bloemfontein’s leading cricket-playing schools.

The Klofies will still be licking their wounds after suffering a 56-run defeat earlier this week against Hoërskool Menlopark in the Finsbury League, which boasts some of the best Noordvaal talent.

On Friday, Waterkloof squares off against Grey College. It’s a long-standing rivalry that has heated up over the last couple of years.

Besides the Pretoria team’s captain, Riley Miller, and their wicketkeeper/batsman, Rico van der Walt, the remainder of the side’s batsmen will be keen to make telling contributions. Miller has been in some superb form, scoring 366 runs in January alone, including centuries against Rondebosch Boys’ High (107) and King Edward VII School (103).

The Waterkloof batsman will have to deal with Grey’s four-pronged seam attack, led by left-arm quick Sicelo Matayi. That quartet has been instrumental in Grey’s successes since the start of the year.

In the batting department, the in-form Pieter Smit and SA Schools’ opening batsman, Christian Kind, among others, stand in the way of the Klofie bowlers. Kind is yet to hit top form in 2025, but he appears to be on the verge of flipping the switch, which makes him a danger to Waterkloof on Friday.

A day later, just down the road, St Andrew’s School awaits the visitors from Pretoria. Saints, too, has racked up some notable successes in the 2025 season so far, including being crowned the winners of the Schools SA20 competition for the Northern Cape, North West, and Free State, In the final, they beat Grey College by 34 runs.

St Andrew’s possesses a strong batting lineup. FG Botha has been a mainstay of his team’s success, while Reuben van Aarde and Naudé Botha have also demonstrated their batting prowess.

It will be a tough challenge for the visitors to go two from two against Grey and Saints, but they will be quietly confident that it’s an attainable goal.

FIXTURES

Friday
Grey College vs Waterkloof.

Saturday
St Andrew’s School vs Waterkloof.

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