AMANZIMTOTI Cricket Club reports back on weekend fixtures:
Senior sides:
ACC 1st team
The 1st team played the T20 final against Ilembe on Sunday, 25 October at Kingsmead.
They really appreciated the large number of supporters who were at the ground to cheer them on. Friends and family packed the north stand, and the full 2nd team dressed in their playing kit were very vocal and their cheering left nobody in doubt as to who they were supporting.
Sadly however, the game turned out to be disappointing for the team and their supporters. Some of the players may have been overawed by the occasion and silly mistakes in the field allowed far too many runs to be given away. Ilembe posted a challenging 135 runs.
Jarryd Michaux was the outstanding bowler claiming 3/14 off four overs. ACC’s batting got off to a very slow start and the opening batters went out in the 9th and 10th overs with the score on 40. Robin Smith made a hard-fought 26 runs. Devon Kupfermann and Jarryd Michaux brought the team back into the game with some big hitting but when Devon was out in the 19th over with the score on 114, for 32 off 22 balls, 22 runs were just too much for the batters to chase. Jarryd finished not out on 39 off 26 balls.
A very disappointed team scored 125 for five wickets and lost by 10 runs. On the day, Ilembe were deserved winners, but the ACC boys know if they had all played to their potential, the outcome could have been a lot different. It was a big learning curve for a team packed with potential and genuine cricketing ability. The coach’s mantra is simple “If you want to win, then all 11 players need to bring their A game, every game”.
Next Sunday the Challenge League starts with a home game against Southern Natal starting at 9am at Toti Oval. The team are determined to put up a strong challenge to win this league and earn the right to play in the Premier League next season.
ACC 2nd team
The second team travelled to Stonebridge for their match against East Coast 2. Toti went in to bat first, and scored 199 in the 30th over. TP Venter scored a great 51, and was ably supported by H Nienaber and J Pretorius each with 27, and N Mbilli with 24 not out. East Coast put up a spirited chase, but were bowled out in the 26th over for 158. Pick of the bowlers were R Du Preez with 4/34 in six, and Faf Strydom with 3/34 in seven. Another good win by this team.
Junior sides:
ACC U15 South
The U15 side hosted Silver Saints at the Toti Oval on Sunday morning. Toti batted first and pushed hard to score 160/4 in 30 overs. S Hennop led the attack with an excellent 56, and had support in the shape of R Vosloo who finished 26 not out. Eight of the 10 boys who turned up for the match were given a chance to bowl during the Saints innings. Best bowling was returned by M Haywood with 3/10 in five overs. Corne Nel produced figures of 11/2 in three overs, and S Hennop again contributed with a spell of 2/24 in his four overs. A good victory for these boys; and one can’t help thinking that if there were a set 11 to take the pitch each weekend, we could really start to see good things happen.
ACC U13 North had a bye this weekend.
ACC U11 North
The U11 north side played against Hillary/Malvern at Fairfield Park on Sunday morning. Toti was again first to bat, and they amassed a tidy 147 all out. Man of the match, Romashan Pillay scored 62 not out. Jayden Venter and Breton added another 33 and 22 respectively. The reply from Hillary got off to a slow start, and they found themselves at 40/4 at the midway point. The recovered somewhat, but were always just too slow in getting the runs on the board. They were bowled out 108, an victory to Toti by 41 runs. Fantastic guys. Keep up the good work.
ACC U11 South
On Sunday, 25 October the ACC U11 South team played against FAM Folweni at Asherville B. ACC won the toss and decided to bat first. Kyle McCalgan and Jordan Van Zyl opened with a good partnership before Kyle was bowled for 15 runs. All of the batsmen to follow supported Jordan well as he quickly built his man-of-the-match innings of 51. He had to retire after getting his 50, but what a brilliant knock from this eight-year-old.
ACC finished with 104/4 after their 30 overs. Kyle opened the bowling and got three wickets in his first over, all three bowled. Good fielding and catching quickly put FAM at 14/7, with Zi Gumede taking 3/10 and Jared Havemann 2/2. A bit of a sleepy patch in the middle got things exciting at the end of the innings with quick runs being scored by the FAM tail-enders. Waldo Greyvenstein with 1/18 and Andrew Elkington with 1/0 stepped up to take the last two troublesome wickets to wrap up the FAM innings for 96 runs. This gave ACC a well-deserved but narrow victory, winning by just eight runs. An excellent effort again by all of these young lads, and especially Jordan Van Zyl. Very well done.
