A decision to bowl first by Northwood paid rich dividends in their clash with King Edward VII (KES) on the UKZN 1 Oval in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday, the opening day of the 66th Oppenheimer Michaelmas Cricket Week.
KES made an awful start, with five of their top six scoring three runs or less, and number five batsman, Abdullah Mohammed, with nine, making more than the other five combined.
Those six wickets were spread among four bowlers, but it was the Knights‘ opening pair of Ryan van Zyl and Josh Mills that inflicted the greatest damage.
KES found themselves in disarray on 14/5 in the ninth over, and that became 29/6 two overs later.
At last, though, they gained some traction through the efforts of Luke Clarke and Steele Grooteman, who added 69 for the seventh wicket. Clark then departed, caught by David de Bruyn off Nick Slater for 29.
Grooteman went on to top score, hitting four fours in his 37 from 65 deliveries.
Keegan Hendey, with 10 not out, and Tyler Cloete, with 10, helped KES into triple figures, and they were eventually all out for 124 after 38.4 overs.
Ryan van Zyl knocked over 3/20 in seven overs, and his new ball partner, Josh Mills, claimed 2/15, also in seven. They needed support, however, and they got it from leg spinner, Hamza Amla, who got rid of Grooteman and added the last two wickets of the innings to finish with the excellent return of 3/12 off 5.4 overs.
Defending a light total, KES battled with typical grittiness, but they faced an equally tenacious opponent, and the Knights, after losing Ross McGlashan early, cruised to 50 at almost five runs per over before losing their second wicket, when Steele Grooteman caught and bowled Nick Slater for 21.
It became a grind-it-out affair for Northwood after that. All except for number three batsman David de Bruyn, who went hard at the KES bowlers. He top-scored with 58 off 60 balls, hammering eight fours and a six.
He was the fourth man out, but by then he had helped his side to 97/4, within distance of an impressive win.
Three more wickets went down before they claimed victory, but after 34.2 overs, they reached 125/7 to record a three-wicket win.
Besides De Bruyn and Slater, only Luc Boyall, with 14, reached double figures, but De Bruyn’s innings had made a world of difference.
Troy Gordon nabbed 2/17 in four overs for KES, but Steele Grooteman made life especially difficult for the Knights, capturing 2/20 from his 10 challenging overs.
Wade McQuinn took 1/14 in three. Connor Kuijers tied down the Northwood batsmen in his 10 overs, which brought him 1/31, and opening bowler Ryan Erasmus bagged 1/19 in five. However, the Johannesburg side’s top order collapse doomed them to defeat.
Clifton College vs St Alban’s College
At the UKZN 2 Oval, Clifton College captain Shiraz Perumal won the toss and inserted St Alban’s College to bat.
Blake Johnson struck early, removing Ethen Detert for two, and Thomas Hall fell cheaply to George Gooch, but opening batsman Rea Mokoka and Tiashen Naidoo dug and ground their way to impactful innings.
Johnson didn’t make it easy. The left-arm spinner, who took the new ball, tied down the batsmen, snaring 1/19 in 10 tidy overs.
But Naidoo stayed cool and calm, facing 105 balls for his 56, which was the highest score in St Alban’s 200/7 from their 50 overs. Mokoka was also circumspect, chipping in with 40 before Perumal bowled him.
He was the first of a trio of batsmen to fall to the leg-spinning wiles of the Clifton skipper, which sent St Alban’s plummeting from 77/2 to 85/5.
Naidoo, though, hung around and added 53 for the sixth wicket with Kyle Block before his resistance came to an end. Block then teamed up with Tristan Naidoo to tack on another 39 runs from only 32 balls for the seventh wicket.
He became George Gooch’s third victim, caught by Keegan Watson for 31 off 44 deliveries, which included four fours.
Tristan Naidoo went on to contribute a valuable 30 not out and shared an unbroken 25-run stand with Luke Ward.
While Johnson was miserly up front, Perumal was the pick of the Clifton bowlers, snaring 3/30 in 10 overs. Gooch did his bit, capturing 3/39 in nine.
The St Alban’s total of 200 proved to be more than enough because Clifton’s batsmen endured a day to forget. Their reply started slowly, but solidly, with Yusuf Ahmed and Daniyaal Klinck putting on 24 for the first wicket before Ahmed fell, caught by Thomas Hall off Luke Ward for 12.
Klinck went on to make 22, but Ward was a difference-maker, knocking over 5/22 in 10 overs to lay waste to Clifton’s reply. Klinck also fell to Ward, and the St Alban’s opening bowler crucially dismissed the dangerous Muhammed Malek for four, on his way to removing five of the top six in the Clifton batting order.
Will Hewett struck, removing a couple of batsmen, to reduce Clifton to 91/9. At last, though, the Durban boys halted the slide, thanks to Caleb Naicker.
He and Keegan Watson, who stuck to holding down his end while Naicker went about adding runs, added 48 runs for the last wicket, easily the highest stand of their side’s innings.
It ended when Thomas Hall caught Naicker off Tristan Naidoo for 46, leaving Clifton 139 all out, and St Alban’s the winner by a convincing 61 runs.
Tuskers Invitation XI vs CSA Invitation XI
The Tuskers Invitation XI, a late inclusion at the Michaelmas Week, bared their teeth when they met the CSA Invitation XI at the MP Oval in Woodlands, and that had plenty to do with Sphamandla Dzanibe.
He excelled with the ball following the Tuskers’ decision to bowl first, wrecking the CSA Invitation side’s innings with a super spell that produced 6/28 from six overs.
Aphile Nzama picked up two wickets, and Sandiso Dzanibe and Lwazi Mkhize added a cheap wicket each as the CSA side tumbled to 113 all out after 22.5 overs. It could have been worse, with 25 wides boosting their total appreciably.
Only Ashley Khumalo got going, bashing four fours and two sixes in his quickfire 32 off 22 balls before he fell to Nzama. Only three other batsmen made it into the teens.
The Tuskers then made light work of the run chase, and an opening stand of 107 between Daniel Nadasan and Kwanele Nqayi was almost enough to take them across the line.
It ended when Nqayi was stumped by Bolumko Magatya off the bowling of Njabulo Mila for 56. His innings included eight fours.
Less than four overs later, the Tuskers Invitation XI sealed the win, with Nadasan running two to finish with 46 not out.
Mila, the lone wicket-taker, finished with 1/24 from 5.1 overs.
Michaelhouse vs St David’s Marist Inanda
In Balgowan, on the Roy Gathorne Oval, Michaelhouse posted 244 all out after being put in to bat by St David’s Marist Inanda.
Jack Campbell led the way, making 51 from 64 balls, two of which he launched for six, and two of which he hit to the boundary.
Graydon Leslie, opening the innings, weighed in with 41 from 51, striking four fours and a six. Ben Heuer added some impetus, cracking seven fours and two sixes in an aggressive 45 from 33 balls. He also shared a 72-run partnership with Campbell, the highest stand of the innings, at better than a run a ball.
Rendani Nonge chipped in with a useful 20 not out as House batted at a healthy 5.9 runs per over.
Three bowlers bagged two wickets each. Hayden Campbell claimed 2/25 in 6.4 overs, Khutso Sekgobela picked up 2/27 in two, and Kairav Koobair took 2/46.
St David’s batted at a healthy enough four runs per over in their reply. Problematically, though, they lost wickets all too often. That included the removal of both openers, Sohail Seonath and Roberto Mariano, with only one run on the board.
The Johannesburg side responded with three decent partnerships, but they needed one of those to go bigger than the 46 for the third wicket between Jonah Gruskin and Michael Smithyman, which was the best of their innings.
Their second-best stand came from the tenth wicket pair of Kyle Stokoe and Miles Pegg, who stood firm for 13 overs, adding 43 runs, before Nathan Simons caught and bowled Pegg for 17. Stokoe finished with 12 not out.
Simons returned a tight 2/21 from 8.1 overs, while Liam O’Dwyer claimed 3/35 in nine, and Preston Greene sent down four maidens in his 2/22 from nine.
Thandanani Zuma, Rendani Nonge, and Ben Heuer picked up one wicket each, leaving St David’s on 47/3 in the seventh over of their reply.
While Michaelhouse won convincingly by 79 runs, they will need to work on their bowling – 31 wides is not a good look.
Hayden Campbell, with 29, Michael Smithyman, with 28, and Khutso Sekgobela, with 23, all made starts for St David’s but failed to press on.
Scorecards
King Edward VII 124/10 (Steele Grooteman 37, Luke Clark 29; Hamza Amla 3/12, Ryan van Zyl 3/20, Josh Mills 2/15); Northwood 125/7 (David de Bruyn 58, Nick Slater 21; Troy Gordon 2/17, Steele Grooteman 2/20). Northwood won by three wickets.
St Alban’s College 200/7 (Tiashen Naidoo 56, Rea Mokoka 40, Kyle Block 31, Tristan Naidoo 30*, Extras 23; Shiraz Perumal 3/30, George Gooch 3/49); Clifton College 139/10 (Caleb Naicker 46, Extras 36, Daniyaal Klinck 22; Luke Ward 5/22, Will Hewett 2/28). St Alban’s College won by 61 runs.
CSA Invitation XI 113/10 (Ashley Khumalo 32, Extras 29; Sphamandla Dzanibe 6/28, Aphile Nzama 2/33); Tuskers Invitation XI 115/1 (Kwanele Nqayi 55, Daniel Nadasan 46*). Tuskers Invitation XI won by nine wickets.
Michaelhouse 244/10 (Jack Campbell 51, Graydon Leslie 41, Ben Heuer 45, Extras 29, Rendani Nonge 20*; Hayden Campbell 2/25, Khutso Sekgobela 2/27, Kaira Koobair 2/46); St David’s Marist Inanda 165/10 (Extras 38, Hayden Campbell 29, Michael Smithyman 28, Khutso Sekgobela 23; Liam O’Dwyer 3/35, Nathan Simons 2/21, Preston Greene 2/22). Michaelhouse won by 79 runs.
