Florida Cricket Club’s second team hosted their Soweto counterparts in the last league game of the first half of the season.
The Soweto Pioneers arrived more than an hour late for the game, resulting in the game being shortened to 42 overs per innings. Roeshen Sage, Florida’s captain, won the toss, and sent Soweto in to bat.
The Soweto cricketers’ playing performance has been consistent throughout the league, with them scoring more than 200 runs per match, with some being defended successfully, while at other times, it was not enough.
In order for Florida to gain a psychological advantage, they would have to restrict Soweto to under 200, and with Jared Troskie’s inspired bowling – removing top three batsmen with ease – it looked like it would be an easy task.
But, Soweto’s middle-order batsmen did not go down without a fight, scoring nearly 100 runs in an almost equal number of balls, taking their total to 204 runs.
Florida needed 205 runs to win, at five runs per over, but the early loss of Mo Shaik’s wicket gave the Soweto attack some early confidence. However, JP King and Declan Osborn had other plans, and their 58-run partnership gave some stability to the innings. But this was short-lived, as Declan was run out and JP’s nightmare shot saw him missing out on his 50.
This gave Soweto a renewed sense of confidence and they pushed harder. The only Florida batsman who seemed to have a reply to the bowling coming at him was Gerhard Nagel, who scored 23 runs.
Eventually the Florida boys fizzled away to a mere 177 runs – 33 runs short of the target.
The best bowler on the day was Jared Troskie with 4/33. JP King was the best batsman, scoring 49 runs.
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