Pinetown Cricket Club celebrates victory

FOLLOWING the Dolphins’ rained out match on Friday night, Pinetown CC 1st XI took on Clares CC at Kingsmead in Saturday morning’s KZN T20 Premier League Final.

Pinetown lost the toss and were put in to bat on a wicket that had received some rain the previous evening.

The Pinetown batsmen struggled to come to grips with the tough conditions against an opening attack featuring former KZN provincial cricketers, Vyash Gobind and Brandon Scullard.

The Pinetown innings stuttered to 22/4 after five overs before Bruce Kerr (43) was joined by skipper Kyle Buckthorp (24) in a 51 run partnership. Some lusty late order strokes from Dylan Buckthorp (24*) helped Pinetown recover to a respectable 133/7 by the close of their innings.

Pinetown struggled initially to find their length before Dylan Buckthorp (1/27) struck in the third over, taking the score to 22/1.

The Pinetown attack, backed by tight fielding, proceeded to squeeze the Clares batsmen. Clares were unable to put on a significant partnership as wickets fell at regular intervals.

Four run outs resulted from the disciplined Pinetown fight back with outstanding contributions from Matthew Ford (2/17) and Man of the Match, Skhonza Nxasana (2/14).

Nxasana’s wickets included a blinding caught and bowled off his first delivery and the wicket of the dangerous Jason Wagener who single-handedly knocked Pinetown out of the same competition last season at the semi-final stage.

Clares were ultimately dismissed for 109 in 19.3 overs giving Pinetown a hard-fought 24-run victory.

Skipper Buckthorp said it is always a great privilege to be able to play at Kingsmead, “and once again, our boys managed to raise their game after a difficult start.

“This victory was only possible due to a tremendous team effort. Bruce Kerr made the difficult batting conditions look easy and kept our innings together. Skhonza Nxasana and Matthew Ford were right on the money and helped claw us back into the game at a difficult time,” he said

Coach, Nantie Hayward said his team just keeps on impressing him with their ability to fight back.

“There is a tremendous, unified spirit within the club as a whole and it shines through in the performances.”

Pinetown’s victory on Saturday sees them progress to the franchise playoff match against Standard Cricket Club at the Pietermaritzburg Oval this Sunday. Up for grabs is a place in the first ever T20 Community Cup in Pretoria scheduled to take place on Friday, 8 to Sunday, 10 December.

“We are not looking too far ahead and our immediate focus is on the match this Sunday. It will be treated like every other T20 match we have played this season as we look to remain focused and disciplined in executing our plans,” said Buckthorp.