Troy Gordon played a gem of an innings, which proved to be a match-winning knock, as King Edward VII (KES) edged out Hoërskool Waterkloof by four runs at Camp Discovery on Sunday afternoon to win the Wildeklawer Noord-Suid T20 Tournament.
Batting first, KES compiled a competitive total of 148/7 from their 20 overs. Their bowlers then controlled the middle overs well on their way to restricting Waterkloof to 144/7 in reply.
Their bowlers’ decisive performance was not a once-off. “The boys showed great character, composure, and good application in defending fairly modest totals in the quarterfinal, semifinal, and the final,” Pieter van Rooyen, the KES head coach, told SuperSport Schools News.
“Our bowlers showed some really good discipline to be able to get us over the line in those three games, where it all went down to single-digit wins.”
Steele Grooteman was the most successful KES bowler in the final, snapping up a telling 3/21 from three overs. As was the case throughout their campaign, the KES bowlers shared the wickets around, with Morné Steyn, Connor Kuijers, Matthew de Jong, and Tyler Cloete picking up one each.
The star of the show, though, was Troy Gordon. Without his excellent innings, KES wouldn’t have defeated Waterkloof. The number three batsman rose to the occasion, weighing in with a match-winning 78 from 57 deliveries, which included 10 fours, to contribute more than half of the Reds’ runs.
Gordon shared five partnerships that kept KES moving in the right direction. The highest of those was a 48-run second-wicket stand with Tiago Dias (17). Nothing puts Gordon’s innings into better context than the fact that Dias was the second-highest scorer for KES. The only other KES batsmen to move beyond single figures were Steyn (14) and Kyle Henenne (11*).
That made Gordon an obvious choice for the Player of the Match Award.
However, the Batter of the Tournament went to Paarl Boys’ High‘s 14-year-old wunderkind, Gilmer Horn, while Wilhelmus van der Schyff, from Grey College, was named the Bowler of the Tournament.
When Waterkloof batted, they needed someone to lead their challenge in the manner in which Gordon had done for KES, but they were not as fortunate.
Juan Swart led the scoring for the three-time champions, with his 20-ball stay resulting in 33 runs. Klofies would have wanted him to kick on after his good start, but Grooteman had other ideas.
Still, it was nail-biting until the end, and Vorster de Villiers nearly stole the victory from KES with an unbeaten 31 from 18 balls, but the Johannesburg side held on.
“We always knew that Waterkloof was going to fight to the very end. We just had to stay in the fight for as long as possible to be able to get over the line,” Van Rooyen said.
“Our seven Matrics had one last dance and got to end their school careers on a high by winning the North-South trophy,” the coach added.
Northwood finished third. The Knights completed an excellent campaign with an 11-run win over Menlopark that included a haul of 3/12 by Josh Mills.
In the fifth-place playoff, three bowling performances trumped that, with Nico Loggenberg snaring an eye-opening 5/5 for Affies, while Jason Rowles grabbed 4/5 and Kairav Koobair 4/21 as St David’s Marist Inanda handed the local side a 63-run loss.
Bloemfontein’s St Andrew’s School finished seventh, beating Paarl Boys’ High by 78 runs, behind 53 runs from Spencer Murray, while they also limited Gillmer Horn to 19.
Summarised Scorecards:
KES 148/7 (Troy Gordon 78, Tiago Dias 17, Morné Steyn 14; Johan Liebenberg 2/29, Rivan Booysen 1/15). Waterkloof 144/7 (Juan Swart 33, Vorster de Villiers 31*, Juan Cloete 25*; Steele Grooteman 3/21, Connor Kuijers 1/9, Matthew de Jong 1/19). KES won by four runs.
Northwood 138/6 (Jamie Wimble 31, Keegan Reeves 29*, Josh Mills 28; Murray Hofmeyr 2/25, Jan-Willem Pienaar 1/10, Verster Richter 1/19). Menlopark 127/7 (Monré Koekemoer 27*, Jan-Willem Pienaar 24, Heinrich Claassen 23; Josh Mills 3/12, Cameron White 2/26, James Searle 1/22). Northwood won by 11 runs.
St David’s Marist Inanda 141/8 (Jason Rowles 27, Matthew Nicholson 18*, Kyle Butler 16; Nico Loggenberg 5/5, Zian Labuschegne 1/19, Paul Bester 1/23). Affies 78/10 (Zander Smit 18, Dylan Stander 15, JP Botha; Jason Rowles 4/5, Kairav Koobair 4/21, Christoph Emslie 1/9). St David’s won by 63 runs.
St Andrew’s School 182/8 (Spencer Murray 53, FG Botha 37, Harbin Smith 26; Divan Fourie 3/37, Daniel Francke 2/27, Derrick Groenewald 2/28). Paarl Boys’ High 118/8 (Neil Louw 36, Gilmer Horn 19, Daniel Francke 16; Heindré Serfontein 3/24, FG Botha 2/23, Schalk van Rensburg 1/11). St Andrew’s won by 64 runs.
