Selborne duo inspire All-Stars
THE Selborne College duo of Matt Dewar and Matthew Fourie helped the Coca-Cola T20 All-Star team claim an impressive 15-run victory over the strong Cricket South Africa Development team in the curtain raiser to the final of the Coca-Cola Schools T20 National finals at Tuks in Pretoria yesterday morning.
Dewar and Fourie were selected for the All-Star select team after they impressed for Selborne, who were beaten in the provincial final just over a week ago.
The ever impressing Dewar put in a sparkling all-round performance, saving the All Stars with the bat, before fielding and bowling excellently as well.
Batting first, Dewar found himself at the crease in the second over, with the All Stars on 6/2, which became 8/3 soon after.
From there it was just a one-man effort as Dewar was supported by a few batsmen sticking around and giving him the strike, but none reached double figures.
Dewar started slowly, but then freed his arms in the later overs, particularly in the 17th bowled by Mzikhona Buthelezi. He hit a two , then smacked him for a six to bring up his half-century, followed by another six and two fours to power to 67.
He was then unfortunately run out in the next over, but the All Stars managed to reach 109/8 in their 20 overs.
“I am very happy with my effort. It was just another cricket game but it was great to come off for the guys and help them to a defendable total,” said Dewar.
“I just tried to play the ball on its merits, rotate the strike and take the game deep.”
A wonderful all-round bowling performance then saw the All Stars limit the development side to 94 all out.
Dewar was kept very busy in the field, taking three catches and forcing a run out, while he also bowled three overs which went for only seven runs, including a maiden.
Fourie himself impressed, with the 15-year-old bowling three overs and claiming 2/16, both wickets coming in a superb second over when he had Nhlanhla Nhleko and Yusuf Ganchi both out for five, while reducing the development side to 46/5 at that stage.
“I think the first over I started getting into my stride a lot more and the second over then worked for me,” said Fourie.
“The plan was for us to concede as few boundaries as possible, tie it up at one end and allow the spinners to come on at the other and it worked for us in the end.”
It was a great outing for the two youngsters and their performances will hopefully have caught the eye of a couple of the national selectors in attendance at the match.