The captain Cayden Wilson led from the front to clinch a spot in the Schools SA20 national finals for the first cricket team of Pearson High.
The Gqeberha boys will represent the province at the finals weekend from March 12 to 15 in Pretoria.
Pearson produced some outstanding cricket at the Eastern Cape play-offs held in East London this past weekend.
Wilson’s side beat Grey High in Sunday’s final at Buffalo Park by 29 runs.
Pearson batted first after Wilson won the toss and made 156/8. Wilson played a match-winning innings of 69 runs.
He survived a chance when he had only five runs behind his name but went on to destroy the bowling with some innovative shots.
Wilson scored his runs from only 46 deliveries. His innings included five fours and four sixes.
There was good support from Luke Hector (25), Sulayman Gangat (19) and Matthew Burton (17).
Markus Potgieter (3/20) was the most successful bowler for Grey.
Disciplined bowling by Pearson made it very difficult for the Grey batters to reach the winning target.
Grey were bowled out for 127 runs with Frederick Jansen top scoring with 28.
Kade Myburgh bowled brilliantly for Pearson to take 3/19. Wilson, Gangat and Jadyan Ward all picked up two wickets.
Pearson started with a no result in East London when they couldn’t play against Mqanduli due to a wet outfield.
They kicked into gear after that setback by beating Jumba High by 10 wickets, Queen’s by the same margin and Selborne College by 4 wickets.
On the way to the final, Grey beat Queen’s College by 8 wickets, Selborne by 4 wickets, Mqanduli Village by 8 wickets and Queen’s again by 116 runs.
Even before the East London weekend, the Nelson Mandela Bay cricketers produced some wonderful performances early in the year.
Grey shone at the Grey Festival in Bloemfontein by winning all three matches.
They beat Jeppe by 8 wickets, Namibia by 3 wickets and Volkskool Potch by 5 wickets.
Pearson was at the Makhanda Festival where Wilson scored a fantastic century in the drawn match against St Alban’s College.
Wilson hit 128 runs off only 59 deliveries, with 13 fours and 8 sixes. He was well supported by Hector with 80 runs off 71 balls.
Logan Fleetwood was the star batter for Framesby in a drawn two-day match against Woodridge College with a superb innings for 120 runs.
Despatch did really well in Bloemfontein to reach the play-off for the fifth spot at the Kovsie Smash Tournament in which 20 sides competed. They lost to Transvalia by 44 runs.
This past Saturday Despatch was involved in a thriller when they lost by 6 runs to Brandwag.
