Club cricket season opens with a plethora of fixtures across the city
“We started off a little rusty but the derby against Khoza is always going to lift the intensity.”
Padded up, balls shined and pitches rolled, the 2021 Central Gauteng club cricket season burst into life with a host of action, 13 and 14 February.
An interrupted 2020 season left local cricketers starved of action and the opening weekend presented the first opportunity to hit the pitches with any competitive venom. Heavy rains in the preceding weeks seemed to further conspire against local clubs but the weather cleared just long enough for teams to chalk up their first results.
Delfos Cricket Club, a Blue Flag rated giant playing out of Cecil Payne Stadium, will be fighting on multiple fronts in the coming months. The club has 12 teams, including four junior and two ladies teams represented in various rungs on the club cricket ladder. Both their elite men’s and women’s sides will be testing themselves against the best every Sunday in the Enza Premier League and Imperial Women’s Premier League, respectively.
The season would get off to a bumpy start with the men’s Premier League team losing by 50 runs to Randburg Cricket Club and their female counterparts losing to the same hosts by 152 runs. In a unique first, Delfos Third XI’s fixture with Alexandra Cricket Club was streamed live on YouTube opening a world of opportunity for the exposure of club cricket.
Each day of the weekend has a top division and the Roodepoort Cricket Club players are the local shining lights on Saturdays, competing in what is dubbed ‘Saturday One’. The club’s second team plays in ‘Saturday Five’ with the opening weekend bringing a mixed bag back to Voortrekker Park. Roodepoort First XI played Lenasia Cricket Club and after bowling them out for 116, collapsed to just 83 all out in their innings.
Roodepoort’s second team faired far better, restricting Midrand Knights to 153 in their 30 overs, with Bongani Khumalo grabbing three wickets for just 14 runs in his five overs. Roodepoort chased down the total with three overs to spare, with Ray Harris and Jason du Toit contributing 36 off 39 balls and 33 off 19 balls, respectively.
David Olivier, Roodepoort’s first team captain, was disappointed with their opening result but knows more chances will come. “Once again, we left the win out there. We need to start off better and it is vital that the senior guys stand up and take responsibility. We started off a little rusty but the derby against Khoza is always going to lift the intensity,” said Daivd. It is all systems go and after a long hiatus, the hallowed greenery between the boundary ropes is alive and well.
