Catch Toti 1sts in T20 final this Sunday
The first team will travel to Kingsmead this Sunday where they will play Railways in the T20 final at 1.30pm.
DUE to the celebration of the festival of Diwali last weekend, there were no cricket league games played.
The Amanzimtoti Cricket Club was however able to arrange three friendly matches, two for junior sides and one for the seniors.
On Sunday morning the ACC U11 South played against ACC U11 West team, while U13 North team played against Durban Cricket Academy.
The U11 game was a spirited affair played on the Toti 2 oval. Both teams gave it their all, and the game proved to be an eye-opener for the managers, as there was a lot of new talent on show. The weather has not been kind to these teams up to now, with the result that few or no games at all have taken place so far this season. This has made team selection very difficult, and also disappointed a lot of young cricketers who are desperate just to play. The manner in which the game was played bodes well for these two teams when they do finally get to play league fixtures.
The U13 team played against their old foe, Durban Cricket Academy. To date they have played a number of friendlies, with the Academy victorious in all so far. To say that they left the Oval shocked and stunned is a gross understatement. On Sunday they were comprehensively thrashed by a Toti team that played very close to the perfect game. Every Toti player contributed to holding this very strong team to 128 runs for nine wickets off 30 overs. At the change of innings there were a few alarm bells ringing in the Academy team, which rose to deafening proportions when Toti started batting. Toti’s opening batters gave their fielders the opportunity to inspect almost every blade of grass on the field. Their running between the wickets, taking quick singles put the fielders under a lot of pressure. This caused mistakes to start creeping into what is normally a very good fielding team. By the 10th over, they were already facing a rare defeat. Their total was passed with five overs to go for the loss of four wickets. The Nel twins again played a big part in the batting success of the team, and top scorer was Morne Nel with 41 off 43 deliveries.
In the afternoon Toti’s fourth team got a big surprise when their opposition arrived. They had been told that they were to play against Umkomaas but Newlands turned up to play. When the scribe received a call on Thursday, he thought he was talking to the captain of Umkomaas, but it turned out to be the captain of Newlands. Big problem for the fourth team. Newlands play in a league four divisions higher than them and have won their league and T20 competitions regularly over the past few years.
Newlands arrived thinking they were to play against Toti’s second team. One deaf man caused a bit of confusion for two unsuspecting teams. The fourth team, like the junior teams, have been starved of game-time and would have taken on the Dolphins if they had arrived to play. Newlands batted first and were restricted to 212 all out. They were very surprised with how well the Toti team bowled and fielded, their score book showed they have averaged around 260 runs when batting first during their last few games. ACC batted well to get to 154 for nine after 30 overs. This was the fourth team’s first game of the season and to take on a strong team like Newlands speaks volumes for the commitment and effort. If they continue to play the same way they played against this team, they will no doubt be a very strong team when they play league games.
The first team will travel to Kingsmead this Sunday where they will play Railways in the T20 final at 1.30pm. They would love to have all their supporters in the ground to watch them face the challenge, and then hopefully lifting their first trophy of the season.
