Pinetown crowned T20 champions
PINETOWN CC captured the KZNCU Premier League T20 Cup on Saturday when they beat the fancied Clares outfit by 24 runs at the Kingsmead Cricket Stadium.
Asherville-based Clares enjoyed a charmed first season in the Premier League last year when they finished second and are currently within striking distance of winning the league this year. They won the toss and put Pinetown in to bat.
They must have thought it to be the right decision when they had Pinetown reeling at the top order of their batting. After having lost the first wicket for 7 runs, Pinetown were on a downward spiral early in the match and were 5 wickets down for 23 runs.
Enter captain Kyle Buckthorp, and together with Bruce Kerr, started to resurrect the Pinetown innings when they put on a 55 run partnership.
“When I walked to the crease I said to Bruce that we need to concentrate on putting on a partnership. We did well to rotate the strike to set up a platform for our sloggers at the end,” said Buckthorp.
And that’s exactly how the innings panned out when the Pinetown lower order smacked 16 runs off the final over.
After the interval Clares were well on their way to eclipsing the target of 133 runs and were cruising on 22 without loss until opening bowler Dylan Buckthorp drew first blood when he bowled Clares opening batsman Mohammud Yusuf.
“We were hungry for the win and this showed in our fielding. Skhonza Nxasana took a brilliant catch to dismiss Jason Wagner who was going great guns at the time. Nxasana went on to produce a match-winning performance with the ball in hand. His four overs netted two wickets and leaked just 14 runs,” said Buckthorp.
“We produced four ‘ run- outs’ and that is what tipped the match in our favour.”
Clares manager Rajan Ramsaroop said his team put on a disappointing performance on the day.
“We started off well and were ahead of the run rate but our downfall was losing wickets at regular intervals. We lost the game in the middle overs and although Ryan Reeves struck an aggressive 32 runs towards the end it was not enough.”
Clares were bowled out for 109 runs.