United outshone in semi-final showdown
After a relentless pursuit of league glory the young and relatively inexperienced United Cricket Club Premier XI concluded their 2015/2016 Eastern Premier League season with a semi-final defeat against an authoritative Kempton Park unit.
Skipper Justin Gamble and his men were a bit flat in their performance against the seasoned campaigners who make up the Kempton side, on Willowmoore Park’s B-field, on Saturday, April 2.
The abundance of Eastern semi-professional players in the Kempton side, including the Unlimited Titans’ Momentum One Day Cup Player of the Season, Grant Thomson, proved too hot to handle on Saturday.
Gamble’s team were made to rue fielding errors, including dropping Titan Thomson on two occasions.
Batting first, Kempton steamrolled ahead, with their openers, Anton Muller and Wesley Marshall putting on a stand of 61 runs for the first wicket, in 6.1 overs, before the former was run out by United wicketkeeper Aidan Justus.
Marshall would fall three overs later, but the titanic Kempton batting order just seemed to get more and more daunting.
Left-handed number three Wesley Coulentianos and Thomson would put on a partnership of 103 runs for the fourth wicket, followed by a 48-run stand between Thomson and Jurie Snyman.
Thomson capitalised on being put down twice and was eventually dismissed LBW by spinner Branden Grutter, for 81 runs off 96 deliveries.
Grutter (3/53 in 10 overs) and JP Meade (3/40 in eight overs) achieved the best figures of the United bowlers as Kempton were eventually all out in 49.1 overs, with 274 posted on the scoreboard.
After lunch, United never really looked threatening in their pursuit of the target, as their openers Vaughn Humphrey and Jose van der Berg fell within the first three overs, with 16 runs on the board.
The wickets of Justus, Gamble and Eden Links (who was the second best United batsman, with 32 runs off 42 balls) fell with the score at 85/5.
Rian van der Merwe put up a valiant fight with the willow and his 62 runs off 69 deliveries was, perhaps, the only shining light in the United chase.
The Brakpan outfit were, however, eventually skittled out for 156 runs (118 runs from the Kempton score).
Captain Gamble commented: “We were outplayed by Kempton and did not help ourselves in the field.
“We probably cost ourselves 50 to 60 runs through bad fielding.”
He added that, in general, the club enjoyed a fantastic campaign by exceeding their pre-season expectations.
“We will look to come back stronger next season and build on this season’s efforts,” he said.
On Sunday, April 3, Kempton proved that they are indeed a difficult unit to face, as they stormed to a six-wicket victory over 2014/2015 champions Benoni Northerns, in the final on Willowmoore’s main oval, to book their spot at the National Club Championships, in Pretoria, later this month.
