PHOTO BY DAVE SAVIDES
THE Southern KwaZulu-Natal cricketers travelled to Addison Park in Empangeni to face Uthangulu in their premier division fixture last Sunday.
Uthangulu batted first and scored 205/9 in their allotted 50 overs. There was some good bowling from Garreth Bishop (2/12 in five overs), Raja Kazi (2/38 in 10 overs), Yogeshan Pillay (2/42 in 10 overs) and Niko Potgieter (0/20 in 10 overs).
Unfortunately Ashley Lombard and Eugene Naude were not available for the game but youngsters Ross Theron and Yugeshan Pillay stepped up to the plate, performed well and showed maturity and great potential against the more senior players.
Ross Theron took the gloves in his debut match and performed well, taking two stumpings, a run out, and a run out assist.
Unfortunately the weather played an important role in the outcome of the game once again.
Dark clouds came rolling in while Southern KZN were batting, putting pressure on the batsmen to improve the run rate.
When the heavens opened and the rain started to fall, the remaining batsmen realised that, in order to give themselves a chance to win the game, they needed to ‘throw caution to the wind’ and get the runs needed before rain stopped played.
Unfortunately they came up short, scoring 145 all out and so Uthangulu won by 60 runs.
Team manager, Niko Potgieter, said that although they lost the game they performed well in difficult circumstances and were looking forward to a home game at Port Shepstone Country Club against DHS Rhythm this Sunday.
Batting: Morné Bishop 9, Junaid Khan 11, Matthew Denton-Cooke 18, Lionel Jali 26, Yusuf Moosa 0, Garreth Bishop 27, Jhean Ludick 19, Raja Kazi 6, Yogeshan Pillay 11, Ross Theron 0, Niko Potgieter 3*.
Bowling: Ludick 0/51, Potgieter 0/20, Pillay 2/42, Kazi 2/38, G Bishop 2/12, Khan 0/47.
Due to the bad weather last weekend the local club games were unfortunately cancelled.
