WBHS wins KZN Coastal T20 final for fourth consecutive year

WESTVILLE Boys’ High School faced off against Northwood in the KZN T20 Coastal final on Friday 28 February, to reign champions for the fourth consecutive year.

Westville arrived at the stadium nervous but quiet confident. They began to warm up on the Kingsmead outfield, where the Dolphins players practice including Khaya Zondo, Robbie Frylink and Cameron Delport who are all Westville old boys.

Westville’s captain, Bruce Kerr, won the toss and elected to bat. The wicket looked fantastic and was going to play well in both innings, but the chance for Westville to set a big score and put the opposition under pressure was key to the title holders’ plans.

From the first ball, Westville’s batsmen, Tyron Koen and Alex Whitelaw, looked to put Northwood bowlers under pressure.

Tyron Koen got off to a brilliant start, hitting three boundaries in the first over, off the bowling of Nazeer Jaffer. In the third over, with the score on 19, Westville lost their first wicket after Whitelaw played a straight drive which deflected off Nazeer and dislodged Koen’s bails, resulting in Koen being run out.

It was the third wicket partnership that took the game to Northwood. Alex Whitelaw and Bruce Kerr put on a partnership of 65 runs. Whitelaw scored 55 and Kerr scored 50 to see Westville to 142/5.

The second innings began poorly for Northwood’s batsmen, losing four wickets for only 13 runs. This brought two senior batters out, in Wright and Jaffer. The two put on a partnership of 39 for the fifth wicket, the only substantial resistance from Northwood.

Northwood managed to get to the end total of 93 all out. The bowler of the innings was Jesse Smit, with bowling figures of 3/8. The rest of the wickets were shared by the rest of the bowling attack with captain Bruce Kerr again making a valuable contribution with the ball while Koen and Alston-Stewart also got in among the wickets.

Westville’s fielding was exceptional, with their fielders throwing themselves at the ball with several brilliant catches taken in the slips and on the boundary. This relentless exertion of pressure meant Northwood’s batsmen remained constantly unsettled and several of them got themselves run out.

Westville with its fourth consecutive title as KZN Coastal champions, are now looking to be the first school in KZN to win the regional final three times. The final takes place between Hilton College and Westville Boys High School on Wednesday 5 March at the PMB Oval.

Jesse Smith won the bowler of the match award, Alex Whitelaw won the batsman of the match award and Bruce Kerr received the man of the match award.