Delfos and Roodepoort Cricket Club clash in juniors derby

The importance of any intense local derby has its seeds planted in the juniors, ensuring those roots are deeply embedded by senior level.

Roodepoort Cricket Club’s under 13’s welcomed their Maraisburg-based rivals, Delfos Cricket Club, to Voortrekker Park, 6 March. Junior cricket is in full bloom around the city, with the best young players taking to the pitch every Saturday morning. Much like the seniors, the junior summer league will be a truncated version to ensure a quick-fire sprint to the finish.

Roodepoort won the toss and sent their visitors in to bat first. Roodepoort took an early wicket but Delfos steadied the ship with solid contributions by Haizum Kauchali and Lionel Joseph, scoring 15 and 30 respectively. Mzizi Mkhize would finish out the innings with a strong 23 off 39 balls, steering Delfos to a competitive yet reachable 115 in their 25 overs.

Roodepoort would struggle to establish any coherence with their reply and in the end would prove to be their own worst enemy. Poor running between the wickets would see their batsman stranded short of the crease on three separate occasions and this, combined with some impatient batting, left Roodepoort with little chance of getting over the line. Ruben Rademeyer’s highest score of 14 was proof of his team’s difficulties on the day as Delfos would run out comfortable winners to build early-season momentum.