Heroic Meade can’t give United what they need
United skipper Justin Gamble won the morning coin toss and elected to bowl first on a wicket that has generally been good to Gamble’s front-line bowlers in recent matches.
A gritty half-century from batsman JP Meade was not enough to steer Brakpan’s United Cricket Club Premier League One XI to a victory over table-topping Benoni Northerns Cricket Club (BNCC) at Hosking Park on March 11.
The league-leaders won by 57 runs on Sunday.
Opener Ruan Janse van Rensburg removed former United man Vaughn Humphrey for a single run with the score at 18/1, but the BNCC batsmen began to form good partnerships that got them to a score of 234 before they were bowled all out in 45.3 overs.
Half-centuries from another former United player Rian van der Merwe, Aron Visser and BNCC captain Kurt Francis bolstered the visitors’ score.
It could have been a lot more for the men from Benoni had United spinners Branden Grutter (4/42 in 8.3 overs) and Eden Links (2/45 in 10 overs) not performed well in the later overs.
Opening batsman Meade was resilient up front and proved tough to remove for BNCC.
He scored 63 runs from 98 deliveries, but he could not find much support from his middle order as their wickets fell relatively cheaply.
He would be left feeling frustrated after he was run-out, the umpire making a doubtful decision.
Also read: CBC battered in Brakpan on sad day for United
Number nine batsman Rynard de Lange scored 30 from 33 in the tail, but it was not enough to guide United past their guests’ target.
“It wasn’t our best performance on Sunday,” said captain Gamble.
“Bowling first we gave away far too many extras at the start (27 in total) and had to play catch-up from there.
“We pulled it back nicely and we felt 234 would be very gettable, provided we batted through all our overs.
“Unfortunately, steady wickets meant we couldn’t build the partnerships we were hoping for and we fell short.
“JP played an outstanding innings, but was unfortunately given out (run out).
“We will need to be more disciplined with bat and ball this Sunday against a good Alberton team.”
That match against Alberton will be played at Hosking Park on March 18.
The first delivery is scheduled for 10am.
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