1st XI Cricket : Grey Cricket Festival
The DHS 1st XI participated in the prestigious Grey Cricket Festival in Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha).
Their first game was a declaration fixture against St Andrew’s from Bloemfontein and was played on a damp pitch with uneven bounce that saw our boys reduced to 39/9 in 20 overs. The day was, however, saved by Nkululeko Masondo and Andile Wanda who put together a wonderful partnership to get us to a score of 111 all out. Masondo scored 51 runs off 61 balls and Wanda 25 off 33 balls. Masondo hit one the biggest sixes ever by a school boy clearing massive trees on a long cow corner boundary and sending the ball out of Grey High’s grounds!
Needless to say our bowlers had a huge task on their hands, but came to the party in brilliant fashion by reducing St Andrew’s to 20/5 in the first 10 overs! This was largely due to a spectacular hat-trick by Joshua Venter. St Andrew’s managed to find some stability after lunch and posted a final score of 141 all out, giving them a 30 run lead going into the second innings of the match. As this is declaration cricket, also known as time cricket, each team gets to bat twice if the match situation allows. This is basically a condensed version of 4 day First Class Cricket, allowing the boys to play a longer format of the game that they thoroughly enjoy. In the second innings we batted with much more stability, with 4 of our batsmen scoring double figures. In what was set to be a very close finish, we required only 2 wickets to win the match, when play was stopped due to bad light. The boys showed a lot of grit and fight in difficult conditions, and should be very proud of the way they played and held DHS’s name up high.
The 1st XI then played the hosts at their home ground, the lovely Pollock Oval, named after one of South Africa’s finest test cricketers, Graeme Pollock. Grey won the toss, and with their understanding of local conditions chose to bat first. The weather was alien to our Durban boys – cool and misty with light rain and a brisk south-easterly breeze blowing square across the pitch.
Grey made the most of their home team advantage, and hit numerous aggressive boundaries off our opening seamers, for a fast start, for the loss of only one wicket courtesy of Andile Wanda. Our spinners came on and managed to claw back the run rate, with wickets falling every now and again. The seamers came on again just before lunch, and managed to bowl Grey out for a very respectable 233, albeit only in the 65th over.
DHS had a very tough start with the bat, wickets falling regularly saw us reduced to 29/3 in the first 10 overs. The ship was steadied by a gutsy, test match like 74 run partnership between Michael Russell and Alex Combrinck for the 5th wicket, batting for more than 20 overs, giving the team a glimmer of hope of saving the match. They managed to get the score to 123, and with 20 overs remaining there was always a chance of victory or at least a draw if we managed to bat out the full 55 overs. Alas, it was not to be, as we had a batting collapse after the fall of the 5th wicket, culminating in us being bowled out for 154.
Congratulations to Grey showing their class with a well-played 70 run victory. Special mention to Andile Wanda who took 4 wickets, and especially Michael Russell who played a captain’s innings with knock of 65 runs.
School then bounced back to beat Framesby by 6 wickets. After their loss to Grey PE, our boys showed true determination and simply outplayed Framesby. Framesby batted first and were bowled out for 109 in 40 overs. School chased down the total in just over 20 overs with the score ending at 110/4, resulting in a 6 wicket victory for School.
U15 Lance Klusener Cricket Festival
The DHS U15A Cricket side created their own piece of history by remaining unbeaten in the inaugural Lance Klusener U15 Cricket Festival, sponsored by Better Compare.
They got off to a good start with an impressive win against KZN Development. DHS batted first and scored 270 for 8 after 50 overs. A man of the match performance was produced by Semal Pillay who scored 133 of 131 balls! Ethan Cooper also chipped in with a valuable 32 of 35 balls. KZN Development were bowled out for 204, with Bayanda Majola taking 4 wickets for 34 runs. Their performance resulted in a 66 run victory for School.
The team then had nail biter with a 1 run win over Jeppe that went down to the final delivery! School batted first and struggled a bit early in the innings with the score at one stage being 99 for 5 and then 110 for 6. In came Man of the Match, Bayanda Majola, who scored a brilliant fighting half century to help School post a competitive 206/9. Jeppe came in to bat and got off to a flyer, with the score at one stage being 123/2 and later 168/3. In typical DHS fashion, our boys never gave up for a single second and at the blink of an eye, Jeppe were reeling at 177/7 as School managed to take 4 wickets for 9 runs! The innings went all the way to the last ball of the innings with Jeppe needing a boundary to win. School held their nerve and managed to secure a magnificent comeback victory of 1 run!
A very convincing 8 wicket win against our oldest rival, Maritzburg College, followed. College batted first and were bundled out for 152 in 46.3 overs. All the bowlers were very economical, but the standout performer with the ball was Ethan Cooper who took 4 wickets for 23 runs after 9.3 overs. Before the rain came, School managed to chase down the total in 32.5 overs. Ethan Cooper also contributed with the bat as an opener by scoring a solid total of 38 runs. However, the pick of the batters was Ismael Omar who scored a wonderful half century, totalling up to 61 runs.
Their final game, with a 77 run victory against Richard’s Bay Cricket Academy, made it 4 wins from 4 fixtures in the tournament.
Thank you to Dolphins Cricket, Clifton School, Northwood School, Jeppe High School for Boys, Maritzburg College and Zacharia Venganayi for your support and participation.
At the end of the Festival, awards, which were generously sponsored by Champ Sports were awarded to:
Semal Pillay (DHS) – Best Batsman (most runs)
Ben Cilliers (Northwood) – Best bowler (most wickets)
Ryan Young (Jeppe) – Best Wicketkeeper (most dismissals)
We are immensely proud of our young U15 Cricketers – their standard of Cricket is a joy to watch.
