Wins for Maritzburg College and St Alban’s at iHlobo Festival
On Wednesday, day three of the iHlobo Festival, the weather relented somewhat, allowing for three matches to be played, but a late afternoon downpour meant only two of the three were completed, with Maritzburg College and St Alban’s College scoring wins.
Kearsney College vs Maritzburg College
Playing on Matterson Field, Kearsney College won the toss and chose to send Maritzburg College in to bat in a T20 clash. That decision was rewarded with early success with the Maritzburg men crawling their way to 29/4 after 9.4 overs.
Opener Akhil Barath kept his cool, though, and struck eight fours in the innings’ highest score of 53 from 56 balls. He was out off the second last ball of the College’s 20 overs, but, thankfully for the coach Robbie Coutts’ charges, Barath had found good support from Tian van Niekerk.
The College wicketkeeper showed off his batting chops with an unbeaten 34 from 30 deliveries, with three fours, and together with Barath added 83 off 62 balls for the fifth wicket.
Bonga Maphanga was the most successful of the home side’s bowlers, claiming 2/23 from his four overs. Up front, Litha Gonya, with 1/8 from two, and Michael Groom, with 0/7 from three, placed College under pressure.
In reply, Kearsney made a cleaner start than Maritzburg College. They lost Jonty Wiggett with 11 runs on the board but then advanced to 35 before losing their second wicket at the start of the second over. The problem was that they lost another four for the addition of only two runs.
With two balls remaining in the ninth over, Kearsney was struggling on 38/6 and by the end of the 12th over they were in deep trouble on 46/8.
Down but not out, the home side’s last three batsmen fought a valiant fight. James Bishop and Daniel Miskey tacked on 26 from 22 balls for the ninth wicket before Bishop fell for 10.
Miskey kept attacking and together with Michael Groom partnered for a tenth wicket stand of 30 from 24 balls before Miskey’s brave counter-attacking knock was ended when he was caught by a combination of College’s opening bowlers, with Sam Hughes pouching the opportunity off the bowling of Reece Willson.
It was, however, Tuskers’ Khaya Majola Week bowler, Sphamandla Dzanibe, and Dominic Du Toit who put the skids under Kearsney’s reply. Dzanibe caused the host’s batsmen all kinds of trouble with his left-arm seamers, capturing a sparkling 3/4 in four overs, while Du Toit nabbed four wickets for 18 in four.
St Alban’s College vs Uplands College
St Alban’s College was well on the way to a T20 win over Uplands College on the AH Smith Oval, but rain almost put paid to their chances of victory with only 12 runs needed and all 10 wickets in hand. Eventually, though, they were able to return to the crease and went on to a 10-wicket victory, which followed a 15-run win over Falcon College on Tuesday.
Uplands mustered only 60/9 in their 20 overs after being sent in to bat, with Aiden van Zyl‘s 10 the best of their batting efforts.
That meant that there were some good-looking bowling figures from the St Alban’s bowlers. The wickets were spread around. Luke Ward snapped up 2/4 in four, Christian Visage claimed 2/6 in 4, Liam Basch 2/7 in four, and Kyle Earle 2/14 in four.
Ethan Nel, then, followed up his 37 against Falcon with an unbeaten 30 from 34, with four fours, while Wayne Kruger was on 24 not out from 37 balls when St Alban’s achieved victory with 8.1 overs to spare.
Clifton College vs Falcon College
Clifton College and Falcon College opted for a 30-overs-a-side game and almost managed to complete it. When rain brought it to an end, the contest was finely poised.
The Zimbabwean school chose to bat first and made a solid start, with their openers, Alistair Carle and Reed Merick putting on 33 for the first wicket before Carle departed for 15. Merick went on to score 29. He was the fourth man out as Falcon slid from 54/2 to 62/7.
However, some lusty hitting from Liam Nel, especially, boosted Falcon to 123 all out, with Nel cracking two fours and two sixes in a hard-hitting 31 from 36 balls. James Thompson hit three fours to finish on 15 not out from nine.
Clifton’s bowlers were led by the attacking leg-spinner Shiraz Perumal, who snared 4/26 in six to add another strong return after a record-breaking 2024 during which he established a school record for the most wickets in a calendar year.
Gabriel Vermeulen lent good support, picking up 2/15 in five, while Caleb Naicker did well, taking 2/15 in his five. Captain Tim Saulez weighed in with 2/25 from 4.1.
In reply, Clifton made a decent start to their innings, with Muhammed Malik and Hayden Drieselmann putting on 28 for the first wicket.
A short while later, Falcon claimed two wickets within the space of four balls, to send Malik and Byron Ward packing, which left Clifton on 46/3 in the 12th over.
Zach Williamson and Tim Saulez moved the score along to 89 in the 20th over, but Williamson was then caught and bowled by Darren Ncube for 10. Within the space of 2.4 overs, Clifton tumbled from 89/4 to 94/7.
Saulez was finally dismissed with the total on 104, leaving Clifton scrambling, but, after two runs had been added, the rain came down to prevent a thrilling finish to the contest.
Liam Nel snapped up 2/14, while the opening bowlers, Zach Gover and Darren Ncube, claimed 2/15 and 2/33 respectively.
Revised fixtures
After revising their fixtures on Wednesday, the organisers, again, adjusted them early on Thursday morning because of waterlogged pitches in Durban, where Uplands College had been due to play Durban High School (DHS).
Uplands will, instead, face Kearsney College at 08:00 in a T20 on the AH Smith Oval. The other matches will start at 08:30.
Clifton takes on St Alban’s on Matterson in a 35/40-over game. Maritzburg College and St John’s are on Osler, contesting a 50-over match, and Kearsney, after their outing against Uplands, will play Falcon in a 35/40 over-game.
Unfortunately for DHS, they finish the week without playing a single match
SCORES
T20
Maritzburg College 113/5 (Akhil Barath 53, Tian van Niekerk 34*, Bonga Maphanga 2/23); Kearsney College 102/10 (Daniel Miskey 32, Dominic du Toit 4/18, Sphamandla Dzanibe 3/4, Sam Hughes 2/32).
Maritzburg College won by 11 runs.
T20
Uplands College 60/9 (Luke Barnard 10, Luke Ward 2/4, Christian Visage 2/6, Liam Basch 2/7, Kyle Earle 2/14); St Alban’s College 62/0 (Ethan Nel 30*, Wayne Kruger 23*).
St Alban’s College won by 10 wickets.
30 overs
Falcon College 123/10 (Liam Nel 31, Reed Merick 29, Shiraz Perumal 4/26, Gabriel Vermeulen 2/11, Caleb Naicker 2/15, Tim Saulez 2/25); Clifton College 106/8 (Tim Saulez 34, Muhammed Malik 21, Liam Nel 2/14, Zach Gover 2/15, Zane Sibanda 2/33).
Match rained out.
T10
Kearsney College 124/4 (Jason de Gryse 52, Khulekani Nduku 2/29); St John’s College 1/0 after 0.3 overs.
Match rained out.
