Double delight for United
"It’s a good start to the season for us with two nice wins."
The 2017/2018 Eastern Cricket Union season has begun and the Brakpan-based United Cricket Club’s Premier XI is off to the best possible start.
Skipper Justin Gamble’s men enjoyed a double dose of success in their two Eastern Cricket Premier T20 Competition matches on Sunday, October 1.
The team met Duduza in the morning encounter at Willowmoore Park’s B-Field and cruised to victory.
Batting first, United put together a large total of 206/3 in their 20-over innings.
Gamble (77 runs not out) and new signing, from CBC Old Boys, Wickus Germishuisen (58 runs not out) put together a strong partnership to set up the big score.
Duduza could not chase down the score and found themselves 159/8 in their 20-over reply, despite 43 runs from experienced first class campaigner Tumelo Bodibe at the top of the order.
In the second clash of the day Gamble’s men again went over the 200 mark, this time versus KwaThema at Actonville’s Lords Cricket Grounds.
A sublime 106 runs from André Johnson and 42 runs from Jose van der Berg at the top of the batting order, together with 32 runs from Gamble, steered United to a first-innings total of 218/6 in 20 overs.
In the chase Duduza were 66/4 in 9.2 overs when the heavens opened up.
This meant that United would secure their second victory of the day by 39 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis Method.
“It’s a good start to the season for us with two nice wins,” said Gamble.
“It would have been good to get the bonus point against Duduza, we missed out on it by five runs, but we are delighted with the wins and the way in which we went about our game.
“We had excellent batting partnerships in both games and a few batsmen stepped up to the plate well.
“André was outstanding in the second match and the partnership between Wickus and I in the first game set up a good total.
“Our discipline could have been a bit better with the ball, but overall it’s a terrific start to the season.”
Gamble’s men will hope to maintain the winning momentum when they take on Bedfordview, again in Actonville, in their first of two T20 matches on Sunday, October 8.
That match starts at 9.30am.
They then head back to Willowmoore Park, this time on the A-Field, for what should be their toughest match against an always strong Kempton Park team.
That match starts at 1.30pm.
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