Old Parks takes a knock against Marks Park

Old Parktonians hosted a young and rampant Marks Park Thistles in a thrilling Premier A-League cricket match at Old Parks Sports Club.

After winning the toss and putting Old Parks in to bat, Thistles were rewarded with early wickets from the veteran left bowler, Bilal Hader.

He led the pack with 63 dot balls in his spell of 13 overs and grabbed (3–36), assisted by the young Fayaz Vawda who bowled with purpose and discipline and got 1 for 20 in his 7 overs. But it was Arslan Ali with figures (5– 20) in 6 overs which broke the back of the Old Parks batting and stole the show. He bowled with pace and accuracy and got just reward.

The visitors struggled up front as the pitch continued to be bowler friendly, but the young captain, Samrat Basu (58) and Rizwan Adam (25) steadied the ship and took them past the Old Parks 1st innings score of 76.

At (133–8), Marks Park declared with a lead of 61. The pick of the Old Parks bowlers were Chandler Reineke (3–42) and Matt Parr (3–24). Old Parks were better in the second innings scoring 140 for 5 wickets, Charl du Toit and Martin van Wyk were the top contributors.

Old Parks coach Richard Wood explained that they didn’t score nearly enough runs and being bowled out in their first innings for 76 was not good enough.

“We fought back in our bowling inning, Reineke and Matt Parr taking 3 wickets a piece. Things clicked into place for our 2nd batting innings and we scored 140/5 declared – Charl du Toit scoring 40 and Martin Van Wyk scoring 49. They needed 80 to win and they crossed the line in the last over of the day.”

Sonneyboy Letsele with (3–52) was the main bowler for Thistles in the 2nd innings. They won with an over to spare. Taking 21 points for the day and beat Old Parktonians outright.

It was a fantastic game of cricket, which ebbed and flowed throughout the day, keeping both teams interested right up until the end of the day.

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