Semi-final spot beckons for United

In March 2016 the club has firmly established itself as a new force to be reckoned with.

Who would have thought, in 2013, that heading into their final weekend of the league stage of the elite club cricket competition in 2016, the club could well and truly find itself at the top of the pops in the Premier League?

They are currently equal on 64 points with defending champions Benoni Northerns Cricket Club in first position, and one point ahead of perennial powerhouse Kempton Park on 63 points, followed by CBC Old Boys in fourth spot on 61 (CBC, however, has a match in hand).

Following a decision taken by the union this week and agreed upon by the chairmen of these top four clubs, the play-off format initially proposed at the start of the season has been scrapped to allow for semi-finals between the top four teams (first versus fourth and second versus third) scheduled for Saturday, April 2, followed by a final between the winners of the respective semi-finals on Sunday, April 3, on Sahara Willowmoore Park’s main oval.

The winner of the final will represent the Eastern region at the National Club Championships (NCC) in Pretoria, later that month.

According to Easterns’ director of club cricket, Lewellyn van Dyk, the move was made “in the best interests of cricket”, to put to an end to squabbles surrounding the point scoring system currently in play and the conflicts surrounding rain-affected matches and the awarding of bonus points, among other influences.

On the field of play, on Sunday, March 6, skipper Justin Gamble’s team took care of business with an eight-wicket win over Duduza on Willowmoore’s A-field, to keep their fight to end in number one spot alive.

Bowling first, on a flat wicket, United’s bowlers did well to take their opponents all out for 107 in 27.4 overs.

Gamble was the pick of the lot as he bagged figures of 4/16 in 5.4 overs, followed by Tsepho Motaung with 3/20 in eight overs and Dylan Rayner with 2/18 in six overs.

With the bat, United cruised to victory in 16.1 overs, despite the loss of two wickets, through Jose van der Berg (30 not out) and Gamble (42 not out).

“It was a clinical performance and just what we needed after the Benoni loss, last week,” said the skipper.

They will host Actonville Spurs at Hosking Park on Sunday, March 13, with their eyes fixed on nothing but a bonus-point win.

Wet and rainy weather was, at the time of going to press, forecast for the weekend, which could throw another spanner in the works with regard to final log standings and point allocations.

CLICK HERE for a GALLERY of a few images taken from the United bowling innings.