OLD BOYS TRIUMPH
Local club to represent Warriors franchise in national event
A superb all-round performance from Old Selbornians Cricket Club saw them brush aside the challenge of Port Elizabeth rivals Mechatronic Uitenhage to triumph in the franchise final of the Warriors Multiply Cup T20 play-offs in East London on Saturday afternoon.
The win means Old Boys will now progress to the national finals in Pretoria next month where they will represent the Warriors against the other five club Franchise winners.
A good bowling performance and top fielding effort allowed the hosts to restrict the visitors to 134/8 in their 20 overs and then a superb batting effort from Tim Niemand, who struck an unbeaten 80, helped lead the team to a five-wicket win with three overs to spare.
“I was happy with limiting them to 134,” said Old Boys coach Andre de Beer. “Our goal was to chase 140, but with the batsmen we have we were prepared to chase 180 if need be, so to hold them to under 140 was a great performance from the bowlers and particularly the fielders who ran four of their guys out.”
Uitenhage batted first and got off to a terrible start as only Zakir Patel (20) managed to get going, and with three run outs in the top five, the visitors were on 54/5 in the 11th over.
Good counter -ttacking cricket from Jade de Klerk, with 50 off 34 balls (3x4, 3x6) and an unbeaten 19 off 12 (1x4, 1x6) from Nathaniel Howard then helped the Uitenhage-based team to a defendable total.
Good bowling all-round saw Chris Beard, 2/21, Wade Hattingh, 1/20, and Joshua Dodd, 1/22, secure wickets.
Old Boys advanced to 24/3 at the start of the sixth over.
This brought captain Phillip Badenhorst to the crease to join Niemand and they had a positive 46-run partnership.
Badenhorst finally fell at the end of the 10th over, driving the ball to the cover region where he was caught by Cameron Williams off Jordan Leppan for a well played 32 off 18 balls (2x4, 3x6), with the score on 70/4.
Niemand then dominated a 47-run stand with Beard , 6, and had an unbeaten 18-run partnership with Dodd to power his side home, ending with 80 off 44 balls (2x4, 8x6).
“Since he has come back from England he (Niemand) has been scoring a lot of runs, so I hope he will get a chance at a higher level soon, but Tim is a very hard-working player and was brilliant today,” said De Beer.