Consistency bears fruit for United
Consistency seems to be the buzzword around Hoskins Park at the moment, with regard to United Cricket Club’s Premier XI.
With five straight Eastern Premier League victories under their belts, the team are steadily showing that consistent displays can create confident ambience and yield positive results.
The narrow, nail-gnawing win away to Actonville on Sunday, October 25, highlighted the cool-headedness and resolute composure needed when backs are against the wall, while this Sunday’s (November 1) contrasting performance, a 150-run bonus point victory over Duduza, showed that the United XI can also turn on the heat and place a stranglehold on opponents with both bat and ball.
Batting first on Sunday, the United order put 266 runs on the scoreboard in 48 overs, with Rian van der Merwe the catalyst, with a top score of 64 runs.
Skipper Justin Gamble missed out on a fourth consecutive half-century with a score of 46 runs, while Kabelo Sekhukhune (who received his Premier League cap in the morning) added 43 to the scorecard.
With the cherry it was paceman Kevin Hinton who hit his straps with six wickets for 33 runs, in 8.3 overs, while Branden Grutter picked up 2/7 in two overs with his spin.
The positive performance with the ball saw the Duduza batting order wrapped up for 116 runs.
According to team manager Des Gamble, the team’s plans are certainly coming together and everyone is extremely upbeat about their performance.
They are now in preparation mode for the challenge posed by what Gamble described as an “unknown” Boksburg outfit.
“We don’t really know what is coming, so we will treat them like any top team,” he said.
“We know that consistency is important, but we also realise that anything can happen on the day.”
CLICK HERE for a GALLERY of images from the batting innings.
- In other results the club’s Promotion XI crushed Tembisa by 218 runs on Sunday.
Dillen Crouse (107), Anthony Kruger (87) and Uli Jooste (50) helped the team to post 333 runs in 47.2 overs.
Nico van Zyl (4/17 in five overs) and Jooste (4/32 in seven overs) were crucial in bowling their opponents out for 115.
In the Directors League, United were defeated by three wickets by Etwatwa.
