Bay win thriller

RICHARDS Bay had to dig deep to beat the Zululand Schools team by one wicket in a Weber Cup match played at Grantleigh on Saturday.

The Schools squad had to play without captain and leading bowler Karl Marais, while Richards Bay also had to make do without their captain Ruan van Rensburg.

Richards Bay won the toss and elected to bowl, which seemed to be the right decision with their bowlers very much on target for most of the innings.

Only Jason Reddinger 62 and Du Toit Pretorius 18 were able to cope with the bowling.

Richards Bay dismissed the Schools XI team for 151, with Otto Rode 4/22 and Lazar Holmes 3/30 the pick of the bowlers for the visitors.

Requiring a run rate of 3.38 run per over in their allotted 45 overs for victory, the Richards Bay reply got off to a confident start.

Berto Basson, as usual in a bit of a hurry to get things going, hit six fours in an innings of 25. Otto Rode contributed 22, but the innings then slumped to 139/9 and with 13 runs still needed, it was a tense situation.

But it was Richards Bay who stood their ground, knocking off the required runs to give them a narrow victory.

The Schools side still hold their position at the top of the log, but could be caught by eShowe if the latter are successful in beating the Unizul XI in this weekend’s round of matches.

Schools, who will compete in the KZN schools trials this weekend, have eight points and have completed their programme.

In the match at the eShowe Sports Club, the home team proved more than a handful for Empangeni, beating them comfortably by 5 wickets.

Batting first, Empangeni were dismissed for 128 with Eugene Zwart (36), Willie Badenhorst (17) and Robert Gouws (20) the top scorers. Angus Kramer 3/25, Mike Abrahams 2/18, Angus McDonald 2/23 and Lloyd Walker 2/29 were the wicket takers.

In reply eShowe, thanks to Angus Kramer (43) and Jonathan Grantham (37) knocked off the required runs for the loss of 5 wickets. Dewalt Wessels 2/14, Robert Gouws 1/39 and Mark Shorkend 1/32 tried to stop the flow of runs.

In the match at Addison Park between Village and Unizul, a mix up with the booking of the grounds resulted in the game being abandoned.

Village had already taken two wickets in their clash against Unizul before getting chased off the field. As it was Village who had slipped up with the arrangements, the points were given to Unizul.

The last round of fixtures will be played this weekend.

Empangeni will take on Richards Bay at Addison Park on Saturday, while eShowe will play Unizul at the uMhlathuze Sports Complex on Sunday.