In hot and humid weather, the 2025 champion, Durban High School (DHS), took on Michaelhouse in the final of the Eston One Insurance T20 Night League on Friday evening at the Eston Beaumont Farmers Club.
DHS won the toss, but their decision to bat first didn’t pay off as the Michaelhouse batsmen set their team on course for victory with a strong performance at the crease. Batting at a robust 10.6 runs per over, they posted a challenging 211/5.
How badly did the Horseflies‘ decision to bat first backfire? When Michaelhouse lost their first wicket in the eighth over, they already had 95 runs on the board.
Then captain Graydon Leslie departed, caught by Shaun Stumke off Shirav Reddy, for 55 after facing only 28 balls. He sent nine of those deliveries to the boundary and another over it.
His opening partner, Victor North, stuck around until the tenth over before he, too, became a victim of Reddy, caught by wicketkeeper Josh van Biljon for 44 from 26 balls, with six fours and a six.
Crucially, for House, after their openers departed, they didn’t surrender the momentum that Leslie and North had given them.
Ben Heuer made 22, and Cody Sander 12. When Sander departed in the 16th over, 28 balls remained, and Michaelhouse had reached 147/4. Riley Muir followed soon after for two in the 17th over, but the Balgowan boys were far from done.
Rex Wardlaw and Jack Campbell laid into the DHS bowlers, tacking on an unbroken 56 in only 22 balls to boost their side to 211/5.
Wardlaw was unbeaten on 28 off 14, with two fours and a six, scoring at a run rate of 200. Campbell bettered that, scoring at a run rate of 300, striking three fours and two sixes as he charged to 33 not out from only 11 deliveries.
Unsurprisingly, the DHS bowling figures didn’t make for tidy reading, except for Shirav Reddy, who snared a commendable 2/17 from four overs. No other bowler who sent down more than one over bettered an economy rate of 11 runs per over.
With plenty of runs on the scoreboard, the Michaelhouse bowlers could attack, and they took advantage of that situation.
Shaun Stumke was out off the last ball of the third over, caught by Cody Sander off Ben Heuer for eight off 12 balls. Then, in the seventh over, House snapped up the prized wicket of DHS skipper, Josh van Biljon, caught by his opposite number, Graydon Leslie, off Rendani Nonge‘s bowling for 12. That left DHS on 38/2 and requiring 174 runs to win off 13.5 overs.
The major difference in the contest emerged. While Michaelhouse’s batsmen played themselves in and pressed on, DHS’s batsmen got in but then got out before they could make a serious impact. Six DHS batsmen reached double figures, but only one of them made it to 20.
Even then, Ismaeel Omar‘s 21, the highest score of the innings, was nowhere near enough for the defending champs, and a best partnership of 30 runs, between Sulaiman Jadwat and Jeremiah Joseph for the fifth-wicket, was never going to cut it.
Ben Heuer laid a sound foundation for ‘House’s success with an economical spell up front, which set the Horseflies on the back foot, already falling behind the daunting required run rate. He went on to finish with 2/17 from four overs.
Preston Greene and Liam O’Dwyer played their part in the win, with both claiming 2/26 from four overs, and Rendani Nonge took 3/22 from 3.2 overs, bowling Josh Morley for 18 to end the contest, with DHS limited to 132 all out in reply.
That left Michaelhouse the comfortable winners and the 2026 champion after a resounding 80-run victory.
Summarised scorecard:
Michaelhouse 211/5 (Graydon Leslie 55, Victor North 44, Jack Campbell 33*, Rex Wardlaw 28, Ben Heuer 24; Shirav Reddy 2/17); Durban High School 131/10 (Ismaeel Omar 21; Rendani Nonge 3/22, Ben Heuer 2/17, Preston Greene 2/26, Liam O’Dwyer 2/26). Michaelhouse won by 80 runs.
