United use T20 comp as solid warm-up

The first deliveries of the 2018/2019 Eastern Cricket Union season were bowled this past weekend with the first matches of the Eastern Premier T20 Competition being played over September 22 and 23.

On Saturday, the team showed exceptional form in their opening match of Pool C against an always strong Alberton Cricket Club side.

The picked up an impressive 66-run, bonus point win in their match at Lords Cricket Grounds in Actonville.

“Our new hero Vincent Herold took a great five-wicket haul and some good runs from other new recruit Anton Muller plus a terrific 49 runs not out from Branden Grutter saw us to the win,” said United’s longstanding skipper Justin Gamble.

Also read: Easterns eliminated at semi-final stage

The team from Hosking Park posted a first innings score of 163/5 in their allotted 20-over innings and the wrapped up Alberton in the reply for a mere 97 runs courtesy of Herold’s heroics (impressive bowling figures of 5/28 in his four overs) with the leather.

Another Saturday victory was achieved in the second clash of the day when Gamble’s men stormed to a nine-wicket win over Tembisa Cricket Club down the road at Willowmoore Park’s A-field.

The Tembisans, batting first, put up a decent total of 157/7 in their 20 overs with the willow, but a good opening stand in the reply from United’s opening pair of Muller (43 runs from 20 deliveries) and the hard-hitting Andre Johnson, 75 runs not out from just 35 deliveries (six fours and seven sixes) followed by a blitz 33 runs from 14 balls from number three batsman Herold steered the team to a comfortable double win for the day.

On Sunday, in what would be their final fixture of the weekend, Gamble and his United team faced off against Springs Old Boys Cricket Club at Willowmoore Park’s B-field.

Batting first, after Gamble won the toss, United were happy with a score of 193/9 in their allotted 20 overs, but Springs had other ideas.

Johnson was again excellent at the top of the batting pile, smashing a second successive half-century.

This time he was dismissed for 57 runs from a mere 26 deliveries.

“We thought that 193 was a great score, but Springs came out blazing and batted well,” said the United captain.

“We weren’t helped by indifferent bowling and fielding, however, Springs punished us and beat us by nine wickets.”

Despite finishing top of the pool due to their two Saturday wins Gamble’s team were docked four points per game played as they could not comply to stringent transformation targets employed by the Eastern Cricket Union.

This means that they could not advance to this coming weekend’s semi-final stage.

Effectively then, the tournament served as little more than a warm-up for the team ahead of the Eastern Premier League which gets underway on the first Sunday of October.