CBC Old Boys cruised to a comfortable six-wicket bonus-point home win over Duduza in their opening game of the year on January 13.
The home side could not have asked for better preparation to boost their confidence and sharpen some rough edges following the Christmas break and heading for the Boksburg derby against CMH Boksburg at Prince George Park.
It was a near perfect performance for the home side – which included a brilliant close-range catch by the captain, Casey Arnold, during a stage where the wickets were tumbling in embarrassing fashion for the visitors.
Old Boys bowler Devon Botha led the Duduza wicket collection, with his haul of 5/25 inside seven overs of bowling all but ended the encounter as a contest.
Arnold (2/26), Sherwin Pillay (2/10; 1) and Jaydin Snyman (1/15; 2) were the other wicket getters for the home side as they removed the visitors for 107 in 28.1 overs – a collapse that Duduza skipper Tumelo Simelane lamented.
The captain said: “We threw our wickets away, the pitch was up and down. It was quite easy to deal with their spinners but it was difficult to deal with their seamers.”
On what his side could have done differently to improve their chances of an upset, the skipper said maximising their batting overs was key.
“We were supposed to bat our 50 overs, it wouldn’t have mattered too much what the score was going to be, just bat our 50 overs and take it from there.”
It took the home side’s top order to topple the target, with big hitter Mark Pearce, Dylan Bennie, Ryno van der Merwe, Arnold and Pillay combining for 111 in 22 overs to shorten a seemingly long day for the visitors.
But Simelane’s opposite was not quite satisfied.
“We had fun, it was the first game back after a long break,” said Arnold.
“Our bowling at times was very sloppy and we also had a couple of guys who got in and threw their wickets away. I would’ve liked an eight-wicket win.” – @SabeloBoksburg
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