The Shaw-Brown 20/20 cricket festival, involving Kingswood College, Graeme College and St Andrew’s College took place at Kingswood on Saturday, with the hosts emerging triumphant.

The Shaw-Brown 20/20 cricket festival, involving Kingswood College, Graeme College and St Andrew’s College took place at Kingswood on Saturday, with the hosts emerging triumphant.

The festival is held in celebration of the years that Peter Brown, Bob Shaw (Kingswood) and Ian Suttie (Graeme College) have put into Grahamstown cricket coaching.

The first game saw Graeme take on St Andrew’s in the morning. Graeme found the going tough as Ian Herold (90 off 45 balls) along with Daniel Long (69), put the Graeme bowlers under pressure for most of the innings.

Both batsmen were devastating at times, as St Andrew’s put on a daunting total of 179 for 3, in their 20 overs. Odwa Oxonxa bowled well for Graeme, picking up the wickets of both Long and Herold for 23 runs.

Graeme got off to a good start, but the regular loss of wickets meant that they never managed to gain the required momentum. Graeme only managed 96 for 8 after their 20 overs, with St Andrew’s winning by 83 runs. Chris Ford was the pick of the St Andrews bowlers with 3 for 15.

The second game saw Kingswood take on Graeme, and it turned out to be an entertaining match. Kingswood bowled superbly up front and restricted Graeme well. A superb partnership between Siphosethu Pinini (32) and Jared Coetzee (43) meant that they could attack the Kingswood bowlers in the final few overs.

Graeme got to a respectable target of 119 for 4 after their 20 overs. Dylan Kruger bowled well for Kingswood, picking up 3 for 15. Kingswood then got off to a shaky start losing two quick wickets, but another good partnership between Matthew Thorp (57 not out) and Brydon Carse (32) took Kingswood to the brink of victory.

Graeme could have made the game far more difficult for Kingswood, if they had managed to hold on to some of the chances the Kingswood pair gave towards the end of the innings. Kingswood won by 6 wickets, but the win was not as comfortable as that margin might suggest. Abner Accom was the pick of the Graeme bowlers, with 3 for 19.

With both St Andrew’s and Kingswood winning, the final game under lights would determine the winners of the Shaw-Brown Trophy. It seemed though that the fate of the match had been predetermined, and everything went Kingswood's way after St Andrew's won the toss and elected to bat.

St Andrew’s found themselves in all sorts of trouble, against a Kingswood side who had a great performance on the night. Jonathan Braans bowled superbly with the new ball, picking up 2 for 11, including the prized wicket of Herold for 0.

Mziyanda Mangi was also outstanding for Kingswood, picking up 3 for 18, as Kingswood restricted St Andrew’s to 84 for 9 after 20 overs. St Andrew’s were bound to come out fighting after the change of innings. Chris Ford bowled brilliantly without picking up a wicket. Josh Devis on the other end, was arguably even more impressive as he bagged 3 for 15 in a brilliant spell of left-arm seam bowling.

Nicholas Gailey however, counter-attacked perfectly for Kingswood, scoring a quick fire 24. Brydon Carse got Kingswood through a difficult period, and with Dylan Kruger (20 not out), took Kingswood to victory by 7 wickets.

Kingswood retained the Shaw-Brown Trophy, while Dylan Kruger was awarded the Ian Suttie – Player of the Day award.

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