WELL, we can dream can’t we?
It would have been great to look back on the past sporting weekend and reflect on victories for the Eastern Cape’s big three sporting teams.
For the local fans it was an eventful weekend with the EP Elephants in action on the rugby field last Friday, with the Chippa United playing soccer the next day and the Warriors putting bat and ball to use on the cricket field on the Sunday.
All these teams were in with a chance to make it a unique winning one for the big three.
Sadly, we still have to wait for that weekend as the big three scored two out of three.
When the Elephants got things under way by beating the SWD Eagles in George 36–15 in the Currie Cup First Division, I thought this was it.
If the Elephants can win, any East Cape team can win. It was Chippa though who brought us down to earth the very next day.
The Chilly Boys have been unlucky here and there during the Premier League season and a win over Kaizer Chiefs in the NMB Stadium was just what the doctor ordered.
Unfortunately, it was clear, early in the match that the Chilly Boys weren’t up to the task and Chiefs won 3-1.
The Warriors ended the weekend, and their season, on a high by thrashing the Rocks in Paarl in the One Day Cup by 86 runs.
It was too little too late as the Warriors were already out of the running for a play-off berth, long before this fixture.
As in the T20 Challenge, the Warriors were overall disappointing in the one-day matches. Some poor team selections and on-field decisions did not help their course at all.
Sinethemba Qeshile’s performances were very worrying and the selectors did him and the team no favours by keeping him in the side when he was clearly terribly out of form.
Hopefully the Warriors and Qeshile will find a way to get the talented 23-year-old back on track next season.
(See the ratings of the top Warriors in the one-day matches below).
Looking at the young cricket talent in the Eastern Province, the performance of the Gelvandale Hub was really good to see.
Gelvandale was crowned as the champions of the Cricket South Africa Hubs National Challenge after winning the final last Friday in Pretoria.
They beat Tygerberg by six wickets in the final and ended the Challenge as the only undefeated team.
One of Gelvandale’s stars was Dayalan Boyce who was the highest wicket-taker overall. Well done, boys!
Warriors One Day ratings (out of 10):
1. Jon-Jon Smuts 8.00
2. Wihan Lubbe 8.00
3. Tiaan van Vuuren 7.33
4. Glenton Stuurman 7.00
5. Diego Rosier 6.75
Important dates:
7 April: 19:00: EP Elephants v Georgia, NMB Stadium
8 to 12 April: 10:00: Proteas v Bangladesh, St George’s Park
17 April: 15:00: Chippa United v Stellenbosch, East London.
