AMANZIMTOTI Cricket Club first team travelled to Port Shepstone to play Southern Natal at Creston College.
Jarryd once again won the toss and elected to bat first.
The pitch gave every indication that it might break-up as the game progressed. It had lumps and bumps all over, with a lot of large, dry cracks.
Jarryd and Desigan opened the batting and it appeared that the team’s fears regarding the pitch were unfounded as these two batsmen smashed 90 runs off the first 10 overs. Desigan was well caught for 52. Robin came in and went out without a run being added. James Taylor and Jarryd then rotated the strike very well before James was out for a well-played 33, with the score on 204 runs after 24 overs.
Faf unfortunately did not last long, given LBW to a ball that never got above ankle height. Jarryd had in the meantime reached 100. The team’s clapping was drowned out by his own shouts of joy; as this hundred has eluded him for a while now. Jarryd and Cameron Flowers took the score to 242 before Jarryd was out for 120 runs. Cameron scored a quick 30 runs in tandem with Quinten Grobler, who weighed in with 14 runs. JJ de Wet 10, Justin Jones 2, and Bradley Prismal 6 all soon departed, leaving Jordan Clark not out on six. A quick calculation of the scores would show that our batsmen put on 270 runs, and the additional 45 came by way of extras.
JJ bowled their opener with his second ball and finished his first over with one wicket for one run. After that things went a bit pear-shaped for him. Although he managed one more wicket, ACC’s fielders retrieved balls from bushes well beyond the boundary for 57 runs in his seven over spell. He was not alone as Jarryd, Jordan and Faf also had the fielders doing a lot of bush whacking. Justin and Desigan took over the bowling with the score on 125 for two after 15 overs.
Desigan had the big hitting number three batsman caught for 78 off his second ball. Justin as usual chugged in and deposited the ball nine times out of 10 where the batters were unable to score. On the other end, Desigan was bowling his cutters which varied in speed from dead slow to quick. These quicker balls had two purposes -first to confuse the batsmen and second to prove to the scribe that his comments last week about his bowling spin were totally unfounded.
The nett result was that these two bowlers destroyed the opposition batting line-up in the following 18 overs. Justin finished with the impressive figures of four for 23 off 9.1 overs. Desigan was close on Justin’s heels with three for 35 off nine overs. He and Quinten also effected a simple run out, brought on by the pressure that was built up through tight, clever bowling. During the 15th over, their coach rushed off somewhere to fetch more balls as their batsmen were losing the balls at an alarming rate by hitting them into the bushes. He arrived back with six balls and just in time to see their last batsman well caught by Quinny with 181 runs on the board. The team paid their respects to the opposition and umpires, pocketed their five points and left Shepstone with the intention of enjoying a well-earned braai at the Michaux residence.
Next Sunday is crunch time at Toti Oval, where the log leaders, Clares will face second placed Toti. Clares has a team of ‘star players’ who will be up against a young team who have everything to play for and never give up trying. It promises to be an epic encounter and the club urges all Toti cricket lovers to join in to cheer the boys on.
A big thank you to all the teams that contributed a substantial amount of water last Sunday at the Walk for Water at Hutchison Park. Remember that the donkey derby is on Friday, 19 February, and that there are still a number of donkeys to be sold.
ACC 2nd team
The day started poorly when the field scheduled for play had such long grass on it, the players could not see their own feet.
Hurried discussion with the opposing team Railways 2, and a few quick phone calls led to the fixture being moved to the Toti Oval. The team was really pleased to get a game in, as there has been three weeks of practise without a game leading up to this point. On arrival at the oval, the team was seen scurrying about, setting out boundary markers and stumps. Warren won the toss, and elected to bat first.
Warren and Mike Mare opened briskly, scoring 15 off the first two overs. Unfortunately the birthday boy was bowled off the first ball of the third over for four runs. Bad luck Wors.
TP Venter was next in, and he and Buggy-man put a nice 19 run partnership before Warren was brilliantly caught at point for 19. Shorty Jansen van Rensburg went in and out to a quick LBW without troubling the scorers. Next man in was Bennie Benadie, who built a partnership of 30 with TP. ACC finished on a respectable 120 off their 20 overs; Bennie and Robert top-scoring with 27 each, closely followed by the 25 from Spyker Venter.
The Railways batting was given a big boost with 10 extras being bowled in the first two overs from Toti. Aiden and Roald pulled it back nicely from there however with three for 21 off four overs, and two for eight off four respectively. The captain then called on his two spinners, and set a very tight field with three fielders in the inner ring; but the tactic paid off handsomely and Railways were bowled out with only 63 on the board. Shorty took three wickets for only nine runs in 2.1 overs, and K Moodley took one for 10 in his two overs.
Very well done by the team as a whole. Keep this up, and we could see you at Kingsmead for the final.
ACC 3rd team
The thirds went up against the strong Chatsworth Sporting side on Sunday. Toti batted first, and amassed a creditable 194 all out in their 30th over. Marc McCalgan opened, and put on the top score of 60. Best support came in the form of P van Vuuren with 34, followed by D Herbst with 23 and G Erlank on 21. Sporting toiled hard to make a game of it, but could only manage 128 for eight in 23 overs. G Erlank had superb figures of four for 22 off his six overs, with the rest of the wickets shared evenly among the rest of the bowlers. A nice win there.
U15 side
ACC U15 got the second half of the season off to a great start against Kwangolosi at the Cato Manor fields on Sunday. Toti batted first, and put on a challenging total of 226 for 2 in their 30 overs. Top scorers were J Jooste with 73, and R Vosloo with 72. Both players retired unbeaten. The Silver Saints team were simply not up to the challenge, and were all out in 10 overs for 44 runs. All the bowlers contributed by taking wickets. T Vermaak took three for seven in two overs, and M Haywood two for six, W Kwhela two for eight and S Vosloo two for 20 in their respective spells. Well done by all.
U13 North side
Bye
U13 South side
The lads took on the team from Topham on the Toti cabbage patch on Sunday morning. Topham went in to bat first, and seemed to be cruising along very nicely around the half-way mark.
Unfortunately for them, their lack of depth in batting became very apparent once the wickets began to fall. Thabiso and Corne kept the bowling tight, and both returned figures of two for 13 in each of their three over spells. Christopher Flay took two for 17 in his four overs too. Topham finished on a disappointing 96 after their good start, and the Toti lads were keen to get in and knock-off the total quickly. Shaheen and Christopher opened, and both finished unbeaten. Shaheen amassed 28 and Christopher 33. The addition of extras with 38 runs had the game completed in the 10th over with Toti finishing on 99 with-out loss. A nice victory to add to their tally.
U11 North side
Game conceded by opponents, who could not get a team together this weekend.
U11 South side
These lads made heavy weather of their fixture versus Quins at the Harlequins 2 field. Quins batted first, and put on 154 for the loss of eight in 30 overs. Best bowling was returned by Kyle McCalgan with three wickets for four runs in three overs. An excellent spell by the young lad.
Every other player in the team had at least two overs to bowl to gather the remaining wickets. Unfortunately the batting seems to have been a bit of a procession to and from the crease, with only J van Zyl getting into double figures. His 13 and the 25 extras formed the majority of the total of 55 scored by the boys in their 30 overs. A bit of work will be required from the lads in the nets, prior to their next fixture. The club wishes them well.
Two of the senior teams had byes, and the U11 north fixture was cancelled at short notice when Berea Rovers could not get a team together for the fixture.
Toti Cricket Club will host a ‘donkey derby’ in the sports centre conference room at Lords and Legends on Friday, 19 February to raise funds.
The club urges local businesses to get involved by purchasing the six ‘donkeys’ that will run in each of the six races on the race card. These donkeys, and the naming rights to each of the six races, must be sold by 5 February so that the race card can be sent for printing.
The club invites the public and friends to join in on race night at 7pm for a fun-filled evening of gambling on the donkeys that will not move unless an enormous dice is thrown in its favour. The in-house tote will operate at full gallop between each race.
Anyone interested in purchasing a donkey for the night can contact one of the following committee members: Rex Hindman on 072-501-8363, Pieter Venter on 079-777-5818 or Dean Carson on 083-555-2070.
In March the club would also like to host the Toti public at the Barnyard to an evening of music from the 90s.
This involves a large deposit, so the club requests that anyone who is interested to contact Phillipa Carson on 078-942-2934 as soon as possible if you would like to join in, so that it can gauge how viable this fundraiser will be, prior to having to pay the large deposit.
