The problems that captain Justin Gamble’s team experienced with the willow in the second innings against Actonville, last weekend, again reared its ugly head on Sunday.
This time, though, it was in the first innings, after the skipper had elected to set a target rather than chase down a score.
Besides a good knock of 35 not out from Justin Brink — brought into the team after a fine half-century for the Premier Reserves XI the previous week — the final score of 162 all out proved to be too little for the United bowlers to defend against.
It appeared as if the bowlers had a stranglehold on the match at one stage, when they had Duduza at 70/6, until Buntu Ndlela almost single-handedly won the match for the opposition with an excellent 79 not out.
His knock ensured a close one-wicket victory.
JP Meade’s four wickets for 26 runs in his allotted 10 overs and Kevin Hinton’s 3/41 in 10 overs were the stand-out United bowling figures.
According to team manager Des Gamble, the problems with the bat need to be resolved soon.
“We tried some new combinations, but they haven’t quite come off for us,” he said
“With a bye match scheduled for this weekend we will, hopefully, be able to have enough time to regroup and focus on our batting before a tough away game, against Benoni Northerns, the weekend after.”
He added that the club will try to field the same team in the Saturday First League, when the play Kempton Park A this weekend in a bid to get the batting on track.
