THE next cricket season for the girls’ teams of Nelson Mandela Bay schools could be the best ever.
At the end of the current season it was clear that the tremendous performance of the national side in the Women’s T20 World Cup gave girls’ cricket a tremendous boost.
Nelson Mandela Bay has many talented girl players but the player numbers grew rapidly at the close of the season, after the national side played in the T20 final against Australia.
Pearson led the way at the end of last month, with the first-ever tour to the Western Cape by the girls’ team.
They beat Somerset College by 144 runs in a match over 30. Pearson made a solid 196/9 and then bowled the opposition out for 52 runs.
Tara Nel had a great match. She scored an unbeaten 50 runs from 51 deliveries and followed it up by taking three wickets. Emma Tinley also picked up three wickets.
Most of the boys’ teams wrapped up their season this past weekend. In their last match, Pearson beat Kingswood by a massive 95 runs.
Captain Jayden Groenewald (28) and Oliver Newland-Nell (24) were top scorers with the bat, and Nikolai Hector destroyed the Kingswood batting line-up with 5/16.
Earlier Pearson and Victoria Park played against each other for the first time in many years. Pearson won this T20 match by five wickets. Newland-Nell took three wickets and Captain Jayden Groenewald led the successful run-chase with 30 runs off 31 balls.
Things were a lot tighter in the annual fixture against Westering. Pearson got home by only ten runs in an intense finish. Pearson scored 92/8 in their 20 overs, with Jordan Collier leading the way with an unbeaten 19 runs.
Westering very nearly pulled it off with the bat but were all out for 82 runs. Hector (3/9) and Collier (2/6) were the bowling heroes for the winning team.
Victoria Park came back strongly after their loss against Grey and beat Despatch on Saturday by 80 runs. Olwakhe Goqoza was too good for Despatch with an inspired bowling performance. He took 7/14.
Grey High played at home in Gqeberha this past weekend and won a high quality match against St Andrews by two wickets.
St Andrews made 220 runs, and a team effort with the bat secured victory for the Grey boys.
Jordan Strydom (49), Caleb Falconer (42), Zander Elkington (42*), and Captain Jean Upman (39), all did their bit.
The hero with the ball was Kaden Titus. He took 7/41.
Earlier last week Grey had no problems in a T20 match against Framesby. Grey won by nine wickets.
Woodridge beat Framesby on Saturday by 11 runs. Woodridge made 113 and Framesby answered with 102.
For most of the Bay schools the cricket season is a thing of the past, and now it is time for rugby and netball.
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