PCC outshined in pre-season game
In its final pre-season game, the Pinetown Cricket Club lost to the Chatsworth Sporting team.
PREMIER league title hopefuls Chatsworth Sporting handed Pinetown Cricket Club their first loss of their pre-season warm-up campaign on Sunday 22 September, beating the Highway team by 40 runs at Chatsworth Oval.
After a late change to Pinetown’s final warm-up game, which was initially supposed to be against UKZN, it was Pinetown who won the toss and asked the hosts to bat first.
A disciplined start from Pinetown’s seamers and an equally determined and gritty effort from Sporting’s opening batsmen saw the contest commence with an intriguing game of cat and mouse.
The deadlock was broken in the sixth over when Pinetown’s Ruben Naicker (2/7) claimed his first wicket of the morning – the prize scalp of Nash Govender (1).
With the initial break-through and the regular fall of wickets saw Pinetown enjoy their position in the driving seat and Sporting soon found themselves at 62/4 after 25 overs.
With Chad Bowes still at the crease and looking well set there was still hope for the hosts, however a rare error against left arm orthodox Barry Dyer (3/23) saw him eventually fall for a well-played 39, again opening the door for Pinetown to close things out quickly.
Sporting’s hard-hitting middle order batsman Sherwin Moodley powered his way to 56 not out, a vital contribution in Sporting’s final total of 158/8.
The class of Sporting’s Saidi Mhlongo (2/21) and Viyash Gobind (1/11), together with the early loss of Grant Olivier, saw Pinetown struggle to get going against the new ball.
After a resilient 21 from opener Kaashief Abdulla, Bruce Kruger (19) and Scotland U19 international Kyle Stirling (18) threatened to drag Pinetown back into the clash.
However, the fall of both in quick succession swung the momentum Sporting’s way and soon the visitors were up against the ropes as the run rate continued to soar.
With medium pacer Deepak Anand (3/20) getting significant movement through the air and troubling the batsmen regularly, the run rate soared and Pinetown eventually succumbed for 118, 40 runs short of their target.
Despite the loss Pinetown skipper Tim Spence was hugely satisfied with the team’s efforts as a whole and is looking forward to start of the new season this coming Sunday after the progress shown throughout the club’s three pre-season friendlies.
Pinetown’s 2013/14 club season will take on league title hopefuls UKZN at 9am at Lahee Park on Sunday 29 September.
Training for seniors will continue on Wednesday 25 September with the juniors training taking pace at 4.30pm at Lahee Park on Friday 27 September.
