The St Andrew's College first cricket team returned home from the St David's 20/20 tournament with good wins against Grey College and King Edward VII School.
The St Andrew's College first cricket team returned home from the St David's 20/20 tournament with good wins against Grey College and King Edward VII School.
In their opening fixture against St David's Marist Inanda, St Andrew's were put into bat on a sticky wicket. Greg King (26) and Murray Leith (42) had a valuable 52-run partnership, but did not manage to see the innings through. The St Andrew's 117/6 total was reasonable in the conditions, but a little below par.
St Andrew's threw everything at the St David's batsmen and with St David's at 84/4 after 17 overs needing 34 runs off 18 balls, St Andrew's felt they were in with a strong chance. Wickets in hand for St David's proved to be their trump card, as they won by five wickets with one ball to spare. Spinners Andrew Rushmere (1/10) and Grant Stretton (2/6) bowled superbly for St Andrew's.
The second fixture against King Edward VII School (KES) epitomised the unpredictable nature of 20/20 cricket. St Andrew's won the toss and elected to bat first. KES were aggressive up front and ripped through the St Andrew's top order. At 25/5 St Andrew's was found wanting. Andrew Rushmere (31), Fletcher Grafton (28) and Tyler Paul (24 not out) fought hard getting St Andrew's to 110.
It was going to take a quality spell of bowling and disciplined fielding performance to defend 110. Brian Ferguson and Chris Ford applied the necessary early pressure, reducing KES to 11/3. KES recovered to 80/6 needing 31 off the last 4 overs.
Ferguson was asked to finish off his spell of bowling with KES needing eight off the last over. He delivered a fine spell of bowling, picking up a further two wickets and finishing off with match-winning figures of four wickets for nine runs in four overs. St Andrew's won by three runs.
The third fixture against St Stithian's College produced a tactically poor batting display by St Andrew's. Winning the toss, St Andrew's elected to bat first on a batsman-friendly pitch. St Andrew's were pinned back early by the St Stithian's opening bowler. At 10/3 St Andrew's needed to rebuild, but struggled to gain momentum posting 95/4 in their 20 overs. Greg King top-scored with a sound knock of 45 off 45 balls. The St Stithian's batsmen showed the true nature of the pitch knocking off the runs in the 15th over with eight wickets in hand.
The final fixture against Grey College produced another exciting finish. An 8.30am start encouraged St Andrew's to send Grey in to bat first. Grey showed no signs of the pitch offering any assistance. After an early let-off the Grey openers hit boundary after boundary and were well positioned for a big one at 102/1 after 12. The St Andrew's players again found the energy to resist and restricted their opponents to 153 in their 20 overs. Panashe Muyeye put the brakes on for St Andrew's, going for 18 runs in his four overs.
The St Andrew's batting line-up found themselves heavily behind the rate, needing 104 runs off the last 10 overs with 7 wickets in hand. They all correctly threw the bat at the problem and the lengthy St Andrew's batting line-up saw them across the finish line and, with nine runs needed off the last over, Charl Pellissier finished off the match with a well struck boundary.
