Bizana rock Trophy Fighters in league opener

Sunday saw the start of the Southern KZN Winter League with three games featuring on the fixture list, one at Port Shepstone Country Club and two at Creston College.

The first game of the tournament at Creston saw Crusaders CC taking on Gamalakhe Warriors in what ultimately turned out to be a one-sided contest.
Batting first, Crusaders posted a mammoth 206-3 in their 20 overs with 50s from Kavesh and Avinash Manilall with a rapid 31 of 15 balls by Charlie Madraveeran closing off the innings.

In reply, Gamalakhe never got going at all and slumped to 47 all out, handing a huge victory to Crusaders. With nett run rate playing a crucial role in qualification to the next round, this could prove vital.

The second game saw Bizana XI face off against Trophy Fighters and, in what was a bit of an upset, Bizana saw off Trophy Fighters relatively easily in the end, winning by four wickets with three overs and a bit to spare.

Trophy Fighters had earlier posted a competitive 156-6 in their 20 overs with a glorious 102 off 61 balls by Abdur Rehman underpinning the innings.

In reply, Bizana XI got off to a rocky start with quick wickets by man of the match Abdur Rehman leaving them two down in no time at all.

Despite this, Umar Farouk (43) and Fahad Patel (90*) put on a wonderful partnership to take the result beyond doubt despite the loss of Farouk late on in the piece. Bizana eventually coasted over the line with plenty in the tank.

The pick of the day came at PSCC where Kokstad Bombay played HitMen CC.

On a wearing pitch, HitMen scratched their way to 99 all out in just under 20 overs, a total that anyone who has played at the Country Club recently knows is a tricky one to handle, and so it proved.

Kokstad were always ahead of the run rate yet lost wickets at regular intervals, making it a nailbiter in the end with Kokstad getting over the line with plenty of overs remaining but just two wickets in hand.

Extras ultimately proved the undoing of the HitMen, despite a man of the match performance from Junaid Mall, with 25 of them accounting for Kokstad’s 100-8, a fatal amount when defending a low score.

With the tournament still getting into gear, this Sunday sees two fixtures at Port Shepstone Country Club: in the 09:00 start PayRite Warriors play the recent Champions of the Autumn 100, ICC XI, while one of the tournament favourites, Spartans CC, kick off their campaign against Gamalakhe in the 12:45 slot.

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