Rain keeps 10 teams in play

Despite rain playing havoc with the annual Amacal’egusha historic cricket tournament, everything was back to normal on Thursday, ahead of Friday’s Champ of Champs final.

Wednesday’s day of knockouts was completely rained out, which made things interesting as 10 teams still remained in the competition. But the organisers came up with the ideal solution to make sure everything would be done before the final.

Thursday morning was set to see 10-over matches played to determine the semifinalists, and then the semis would be played on Thursday afternoon at Mdingi in the T20 format.

This would pave the way for Friday’s 50-over final to go ahead at the Amacal’egusha Oval outside King William’s Town.

“This is the first time it has rained during the tournament since I have been overseeing it, so it did throw a bit of a spanner in the works, and it was a bit of a dampener yesterday, but everything has worked out,” said Border club cricket manager Caroline Krause.

“The main focus of this tournament for everyone involved is to see that cricket is played in a festive spirit, and that is what is happening.

“This year will be different from previous years, but the organisers met with the teams and they were happy with what was proposed, and everyone still has a chance to make the final, which is the most important thing.

“So we are looking forward to a packed crowd turning out to support the last two teams in Friday’s final.”

Among the final 10 teams were last year’s champions Zondeki cricket club and runnersup Vukani, and they will be two of the favourites, along with other teams such as Good Hope and Ndlambe.

The final will get under way at 10am on Friday morning.

Due to the early printing deadline for the Daily Dispatch’s Matric edition, the results of Thursday’s play were unavailable at the time of going to print.