Eagles bowl over Hornbills to win

POLOKWANE – Eagles Cricket Club were officially named the 2013/2014 Premier League champions during a match which was played at the Polokwane Cricket Club’s B-oval on Sunday.

This was the first time Eagles lifted the trophy since the re-establishment of the team four years ago.

The two other matches of the day were cancelled due to bad weather.

After securing the title the previous weekend, Eagles thrashed Hornbills Cricket Club by 149 runs.

During the match, Eagles won the toss and elected to bat. After the loss of two early wickets, the Eagles batsmen got stuck and caused great frustration for the Hornbills bowlers.

The batsmen who helped to secure the 149 runs victory were Pieter Haasbroek, Jaco Smit and Petri de Kock.

Haasbroek played patiently for his 58 runs of 132 balls, which included five fours, until he was run out. Smit made 88 runs of 95 balls. This included seven fours and two sixes. De Kock blitzed to his 40 runs from just 24 balls, which included five fours and one six.

The batsmen helped to set a very competitive target for the Hornbills to chase down. Eagles eventually scored 224 runs for the loss of eight wickets (224/8). The Eagles bowlers kept the pressure on the Hornbills side with some gutsy bowling that saw none of the visitors’ batsmen scoring near to 20 runs.

In the end, Hornbills were dismissed for 107 runs for the loss of 10 wickets, falling 149 runs short.

Dawie Roodt, the chairperson of Eagles Cricket Club said Sunday’s performance was probably one of the most satisfying victories of their 2013/14 season, as Hornbills was one of the stronger sides in this league.

Roodt said their plans for the future were to maintain stability in the team and to keep the younger players who have joined their ranks.

He said the Eagles would start preparing for the Pro20 club league, which is set to start in March.