INDY OIL PINELANDS 1ST X1 vs UWC – Away
The 1st team made their long awaited return to 1A cricket on a beautiful Early Summers day away at UWC on Saturday.
With lots of nervous energy in the squad in the build-up to the season , all were relieved to get on the park!
With stand –in Skipper Jonno Shwerin , having won the toss and sending UWC in to bat , little signs of nervousness were immediately evident.
A sharp early catch by Westraad off the bowling of “Superstar” Avi Mgijima and the 1 A season was under way.
A very clinical and determined fielding session ended with the visitors being restricted to 211 / 7 in their allotted 60 overs. Sakkie “Deals” was phenomenal in the field while “Prince” Nazeem Parker did the damage with the ball returning figures of 4 /50 .
Indy Oil Pinelands went to the crease to face the very impressive UWC attack boasting no-fewer than four senior provincial seamers.
Having lost Colin Sher almost immediately , Pinelands went about rebuilding patiently through a stand of almost 50 between Steve “ Jacques actually” Westraad and Sakkie “Deals “ De Kock. Sakkie being dismissed just before tea for a solid 18 .
Pinelands would have felt pleased with the first two sessions of the day and were very well placed at the Tea interval , 65 / 2 , with Westraad on 37 not out off 55 balls.
However the final session started in the way it ended , as the nervous energy , which is certainly out of the system now seemed to show in the remainder of the batting line- up . Westraad’s dismissal after the break saw a batting collapse which would see Pinelands capitulate to a very disappointing 114 all out .
The procession which ensued saw the remainder of the batsmen hardly troubling the scorers.
Only Avi Mgijima who would finally hold out for a well compiled 28, having run out of partners, offering any form of resistance.
The students then came out swinging and ended the day on 50 /1 , leaving Pinelands behind the 8 –ball with a full days play remaining ! However with a stunning turn -around on Sunday and victory over the same opposition in the Twenty –Twenty semi- finals , Pinelands will certainly take that confidence into a huge fight-back come next Saturday… See you all at Newlands for the AMA 20 /20 final later in the season!!
A huge thank you must go to Fallon Hope for her time and efforts in assisting the 1st side into getting physically prepared for the season ahead , the results of these efforts under the pre-season rallying and motivation of Nick McConnachie are already showing.
My mama told him!
2ND X1 vs Durbanville – Home
The seconds find themselves in a disappointing position after the first day against Durbanville played on the top oval.
After winning the toss and delivering a disciplined bowling performance from seamers Ashley Green, Shaun Heynes and Gavin Roos before lunch, Pinelands let it slip after the break. Heynes took the first wicket with Richard Thomson putting his name in the hat early on for catch of the season at first slip, diving low to his right. Many second team regulars commented that if Wayne Bird was in his regular position of first slip, before the ball had even been nicked he would have been blaming Lups Tuswa for distracting him and putting down the catch, and four runs would have been the result.
Nevertheless, we had a good start, while Green bowled a probing line without much luck and even came back for second and third spells later in the day (for the first time in his young career). Roos was very energetic after missing out on Tin Roof on Friday night and was unlucky with a confident and aggressive LBW appeal, but he, Thomson and Grant Ball picked up wickets before lunch as Durbanville were 114-4 after 42 overs. It could have been better had Andre Coetzer taken a catch at gully instead of bailing and letting the ball hit him on the shoulder, but everyone was satisfied as we sampled some of Rasta’s lunch.
His burgers may have been laced and the deck was flattening out in the heat, but that’s no excuse for some of the dropped catches and poor bowling in the final 18 overs. The visitors were in trouble at around 150-7, but managed to get through to 234-8 after 60 overs.
Facing a Western Province amateur opening bowler whose father was claiming from the clubhouse that he was bowling at 150 kph, Pinelands got off to a decent start, seeing off the new ball for the first 10 overs on a bouncy wicket. Thomo (47) and Chicken Maio (Christened as ‘Chicken’ by father-to-be Gunner Hughes) then put on a good third-wicket partnership as we reached 100-2 at tea, but some bouts of loss of concentration in the middle order saw the side slump to 162 all out.
Durbanville started their second innings in the final hour, and reached 50-1 as Bazza Maart claimed the first wicket with the last ball of the day.
We trail by a little over 100 runs, but crucially didn’t play well when it counted, which made the final equation very different to what it should have been. Frighteningly, the fines list – under the control of strict finesmaster Heynes – is already lengthy, which tells the story of the day: too many silly mistakes at vital times.
The side, which contains seven EC members and four former Grey PE scholars, weren’t happy with the performance (which was very un-EC like), and will be looking to bowl the ‘Ville out early and chase the runs to complete a comeback.
3RD X1 vs Northerns Goodwood – Away
After being smashed in the same opening fixture last season the team was, along with some new faces, determined to turn the tables on their opposition.
Winning the toss and electing to field, Sprinkler Rawlins began the NGCC rot picking up 2 early wickets. They never recovered and were eventually all out for 122 with leggie Matt Price the chief destroyer – 4/24 in 9 overs.
Our batting effort, after a slow start, was stabilized by Denzil Firmstone (37) and our new Fishhoek recruit Rob Whittaker (29). Other notable performances were achieved by Phil Quma (45) and Yasier Samaai (35)
We ended the day on 183/7 – a 61 run lead with 8 overs to bat. A very good performance which we will be looking to turn into a full 25 pointer next week.
Special welcomes to our 4 debutants; Rob Whittaker, Phil Quma, Bruce Tissington and Jared Clapham. Wishing you all many great years at Cape Town’s (make that the world’s) favourite cricket club!
Also special congrats to the 1st XI for qualifying for the T20 final! Top Effort Lads!!
4TH X1 vs Bellville – Home
The Fighting Fourths got off to a rocky start to last years league champs Bellville A as they were bundled out for 111 in just 29 overs. A skeleton side, with many players missing, meant there were a lot of holes to fill, and the last minute additions didn’t help much.
Beefy de Kock (13) and Mike “The Spin Doctor” James (18) settled slightly but when Beef got a leading edge to a poor delivery, it started a collapse which included 3 ducks. Skipper Neal “The Blind Russian” Tosefsky (24) and Trevor “I used to run the bar” Muller (21) managed to give the score some life with a few fours and a couple of sixes.
The new ball was taken by Tosefsky and Ricky “Singstar” Botes, and although Tosefsky went at 3 an over, no wickets were taken. Botes’ one wicket went at 10 an over and there was only mild panic for the Bellvillans when Scott “The Famous Actor” Cooper and the Spin Doctor picked up one and two wickets respectively, which amazingly included a stumping by always whining Beef. But 111 was never enough and Bellville managed to knock off the runs, with six wickets in hand, with enough time to watch the rugby.