AT least ten teams have signed up to play in the 2020/21 ‘practice’ night cricket league games, which began on Monday, October 19 – and saw Buco in Humansdorp thump the reigning champions, The Farmers.
The night cricket league games will continue every Monday and Wednesday, weather and Eskom permitting.
The first practice game of the season was between the All Bats and Build It.
Winning the toss, The All Bats were the first to bat and scored 81 runs for the loss of six wickets.
Warren Manser showed a lot of new heart and reached double figures (10) for the first time this year, while teammate, Warren Knezovich, chipped in with 13 runs.
Unfortunately, Roland Peacock started off the new season with a duck.
Build It’s best bowler was Charl du Toit who took two wickets for seven runs.
In response, Build It could only score 74 runs.
Du Toit top scored with 15 and Stefnus Schoeman helped with 13.
Captain Corrie Beer got his season off to a disastrous start with the first golden duck, while Willem Barnard surprised his All Bats teammates by taking two wickets.
Monday’s second game saw SummerTree batting first against Tsitsikamma and scoring 81 runs.
The only batsman of note was Dean Rohbeck who scored 16 runs.
Captain Merwe van Niekerk also scored a duck, but he was outdone by Eben Bezuidenhout with a golden duck.
Tsitsikamma knocked off the winning runs in the last over for the loss of only two wickets; those wickets being Twix with a duck and Pottie Potgieter who got the third golden duck of the evening.
Wednesday’s first game was Buco against reigning champions, The Farmers.
Matt Eekhout’s 23 runs helped The Farmers reach a total of 86 for the loss of six wickets from their 11 overs.
Two players from The Farmers added their names to the duck register, namely Dean Biggs and Brad Balantyne.
Buco surprised The Farmers, and the whole cricket world, by scoring a leg bye off the very last ball of the match to win by two wickets.
This was despite Vlam Michau making a return to night league cricket, after an absence of about 12 years, and recording bowling figures of three wickets for 10 runs.
The final game of the first week saw The Pinters win the toss which allowed them to bat first against The Golden Ducks.
They scored an impressive 125 runs for the loss of only four wickets.
The top scorer was once again Nappy Heyns with 20 runs and Tiaan Moore scored 18, while Herman Kleinhans scored a duck.
Golden Duck’s best bowler was Gert Strydom who took two wickets for seven runs.
At the other end of the scale were Hennie Vermaak and Jaco Zietsman, who each conceded 17 runs from their over.
The Ducks responded with 80 runs for the loss of nine wickets.
Kobus Van Eden top scored with 17, while Hennie and Johan Greyling failed to bother the scoreboard.
The Pinters’ captain, Helgard Du Preez, led the bowling attack by taking two wickets for only one run.
Charl Malan, however, started his new season by bowling five wides in his over.
