Despite not being able to play on their home patch due to last week’s flooding at Hosking Park, the team looked more than comfortable at the substitute venue at St Dunstan’s College in Benoni against Tembisa in the Eastern Premier League on Sunday, February 19.
Skipper Justin Gamble won the toss in the morning and put his opposite number’s side in to bat.
Tembisa’s number three batsman Thulani Thembela put in a solid shift, scoring 63 runs from 101 deliveries, but the United bowlers did well to remove all who followed him in the batting order.
Opening bowler Kevin Hinton was the star of the show with the cherry.
The paceman produced sublime and economical bowling figures of 4/15 in 9.5 overs (an economy rate of 1.5 an over, with three maidens thrown into the mix).
Rynard de Lange (2/30 in eight overs) and Gamble (2/23 in 10 overs) were also good with the ball.
Their contributions, along with a stick each from Aidan Justus and JP Meade, saw Tembisa bowled out for 184 in 47.5 overs.
It was relatively smooth sailing with the bat for the Brakpan-based side.
Left-handed opening batsman Vaughn Humphrey added to the 44 runs he scored against Benoni Northerns the week before by scoring 58 from 69 balls (seven fours).
He and Meade (who blitzed his way to a more than a run-a-ball 69 runs not out) would establish a strong partnership of 76 runs before Humphrey was stumped.
Gamble (32 not out) joined Meade at the wicket and the pair carried the side over the line in 32.1 overs with minimal fuss, to give the team an important bonus-point victory by eight wickets.
“Another good five points for us,” said the skipper.
“It was a pretty clinical performance.
“The bowlers bowled well on a pitch that didn’t offer much – 250 was probably par there, so to restrict them to under 200 was great.
“Our batsmen never gave Tembisa a shout and closed off the game well.”
The win will give them massive confidence heading into their next away fixture against league-leading Kempton Park at Barnard Stadium on Sunday, February 26; however, with a lot of rain around Ekurhuleni during the week, matches might not take place.
If there is a fixture, though, the win will give United massive confidence heading into the clash.
“It’s a big game this weekend and hopefully we can keep the momentum going and get another win,” added Gamble.
• Meanwhile, the club’s Premier Reserve XI suffered an 11-run loss against Avion Park on Sunday.
