The St Andrew’s College 1st XI cricket team enjoyed a fairly successful Oppenheimer Week hosted by Maritzburg College recently.
The St Andrew’s College 1st XI cricket team enjoyed a fairly successful Oppenheimer Week hosted by Maritzburg College recently.
It is the 52nd year of this prestigious event and it draws some of the top cricketing schools in the country. It ran from 1-4 October and featured the likes of Grey College, KES, Kearsney and Michaelhouse.
Many a great player has passed through this special schoolboy week, including Graeme Smith, Barry Richards and Makhaya Ntini.
This was the first time St Andrew’s had participated in the event and director of cricket at St Andrew’s, Carl Bradfield, was all too pleased with proceedings.
“Maritzburg College’s hospitality and professionalism towards the week was exceptional,” he said.
St Andrew’s played three games, winning one and losing one, while the other was abandoned due to rain.
In their first match, St Andrew’s eased to a 36-run victory over the KZN Development side. St Andrew’s batted first and totalled 210, with Michael Rushmere leading the run-scorers with 38.
In reply, the opposition were skittled for 174, Greg King being the chief destroyer, taking 4/21.
The second match of the week saw star batsman, Ian Herold, set the scene alight with a blistering 139 off 118 balls against respected opponents Michaelhouse. Herold set St Andrew’s up for a monstrous 288/6 in their 50 overs; however, the rain had the final say in proceedings, as the Michaelhouse innings was cut short on 94/3.
In their final match, St Andrew’s were simply outclassed by hosts Maritzburg College. The KwaZulu-Natalians went into the week as favourites and showed their dominance with a resounding 158-run win over St Andrew’s.
Maritzburg made 247/5 in their 50 overs and in reply, St Andrew’s strong batting line up had no reply to the Maritzburg quicks, as they were knocked over for 89.
Bradfield had a young side that he'd expected to be competitive against Michaelhouse and KZN Development; however he'd always felt that Maritzburg College might be a bridge too far.
Ian Herold emerged as the obvious star of the week, but Bradfield was also very impressed with Greg King’s bowling. Left-arm seamer Panyashe Muyeye is a 16-year-old talent who Bradfield says “likes to bowl when the batsmen are attacking – and he doesn’t back down”.
