In the first two rounds of the three Ehlanzeni club cricket T20 leagues, no batter had scored a century.

That was until Nelspruit Cricket Club’s Tristan Parnell finally broke the duck this past weekend, October 19 and 20. He bagged the first ton of the 2024/25 club season in his side’s Premier League fixture against Malekutu at Hoërskool Bergvlam.

He smashed 115 runs off 49 balls, as he helped push his side to 226/5 in their 20 overs – the second highest total among all the leagues in the third round. They won the game by 179 runs, which is one of the largest victory margins this season.

There was only one other individual 50+ score in the Premier League over the weekend, belonging to Josh Greeff of LVCC, who scored 53 off 44 against Valencia.

While the first two rounds of all three leagues were dominated by the batters, the third round on October 19 and 20 was far more evenly contested as the bowlers seemed to fare a bit better. There were fewer 50+ scores this time (10 compared to 19 in the second round) and exorbitant team totals were less prevalent on all fronts.

The third round of games also yielded two five-fors compared to just one in the second. The most economical belonged to Lindokuhle Pawuli, who took five wickets for 10 runs in four overs for Nelspruit in their Premier League game against Ngodwana.

The other was taken by Shehzad Patel, who claimed five wickets for 14 runs in three overs for Humelela against Bushbuckridge in the Sunday Promo League.

Three different clubs are leading the log standings for the respective leagues. In the Premier League, undefeated LVCC are top of the pops on 24 points, nine points ahead of Valencia and Nelspruit, who are both on 15. Valencia is ahead in second based on nett run rate.

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The Malelane Rats, who are also unbeaten, lead the Saturday Promo League, while Impala are four points behind in second and Humelela are a further one point adrift in third.

Valencia 2 is top of the log in the Sunday Promo League and Malelane Young follow close behind by only one point, while Impala 2, Humelela 2 and Valencia 3 are all five points behind the log leaders.

Further 50+ scores from the weekend
Saturday Promo:
• Oliver Gosling (LVCC vs Malelane Rats): 86 not out (58 balls)
• Muller Senekal (Malelane Rats vs LVCC): 84 not out (55)
• Werner Staubli (White River vs Barberton): 71 (50)
• Dave Phillips (Nelspruit vs University of Mpumalanga): 69 (53)
• Donovan Prince (Malelane Rats vs LVCC): 61 (34).
Sunday Promo:
• Zaheer Umar (Valencia 2 vs Matsulu): 90 (56)
• Abdullah Moosa (Humelela vs Bushbuckridge): 69 (41)
• Abdullah Patel (Malelane Young vs Nelspruit): 52 (42).