21Cousins Morné and Gareth Bishop put Umkomaas Cricket Club to the sword in a Level Two 50 Over Challenge cricket match played at Port Shepstone Country Club last Sunday.
While the going may have been sluggish at SuperSport Park in the game between South Africa and India, it definitely wasn’t the case at Sheppie last Sunday.
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Runs flowed in a big way.
Southern KwaZulu-Natal batted first and amassed a colossal 361 for eight in 49 overs.
Matt Redinger and Ali Iftikar scored 34 and 33 respectively to get the hosts off to a decent start.
In the past Sheppie’s field has had a reputation of making batsmen work for their boundaries.
However, of late it’s quite firm and the grass cut short, so the ball races to the fence.
Aiden Heilbuth and Asheer Ramkalawan struck for Umkomaas, getting three wickets in a cluster, to reduce Southern KZN from 65 without loss to 83 for three.
Their joy was short-lived.
The Bishops came together and smashed everything in sight, although to be fair, there was the occasional defensive stroke against the spinners, namely T Nair.
They haven’t batted together for a while, and they certainly had fun out there.
Morné made 136 before being caught out. Gareth, who would later keep wicket, was out earlier for a more merciful 60.
Skipper for the day, Imtiaz Hatiya, joined in on the act and belted a quick 36.
Gershion Lawrence tried to hit one out of the Ugu District Municpality region and got stumped for a duck.
Uzair Desai was run out for 18, with Yusuf Moosa not out on 16.
Heilbuth picked up two wickets, as did Ramkalawan and Nair.
K Sewpersad grabbed the other wicket, and Ramkalawan exacted the run out of Desai.
In reply, Umkomaas could only manage a paltry 127 all out in 25 overs, meaning that Southern KZN won by 234 runs.
Asheer Ramkalawan made almost half the runs, managing a well played 60.
V Singh got 26, with N Ramkalawan the only other player to get double figures, getting 15, including a four and a six to round it off.
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For Southern KZN, Hatiya was destroyer in chief, taking six for 48 in eight overs.
Lawrence nabbed two for 18 in eight while fast bowlers Redinger and Sahal Mansur picked up a wicket each.
The match was the first in the return leg of the season, so the next fixture will be away, followed by another home game on January 28.
Southern KZN tops the log, and if they continue like this, should stay there for the remainder of the season.
As mentioned previously, they have some depth in their squad, with the likes of Ashley Lombard and Raja Kazi not playing last Sunday.
The team is managed by Ben Malamba, with Hassen Desai handling the scoring with Cricinfo website-like efficiency.
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