THE Pearson High girls are expected to make their presence felt in the regional play-offs of the inaugural Cricket SA Schools SA20 tournament.
Pearson secured their spot in the play-offs, which will take place in January, by coming out on top in Eastern Province.
In an all-Gqeberha final last week, Pearson was too strong for Framesby, winning by 78 runs.
Emma Tinley batted brilliantly for the winning side. She was unbeaten with 75 runs in a score of 153/3.
She also took two wickets and Framesby was bowled out for 75 runs. Ame Botha was the chief destroyer with three wickets.
In the Boys section it is still early days, but Pearson started well by beating St Dominic’s by 102 runs. Grey High performed excellently in the North-South T20 u/19A Tournament in Pretoria last week, ending third overall. Grey was unlucky not to start on a winning note against St Andrews (Bloemfontein). St Andrews won by 10 runs after scoring 187/9. Tristan Grundling and Nathan Howell bowled well for Grey.
Kian Cambier (47) top-scored in the run chase but Xander Elkington (41*) and Frederick Jansen (34*) just failed to get Grey over the line. Grey ended on 177/6.
On Friday morning, Grey beat Paarl Boys High by 4 wickets. Good bowling by Cambier and Howell restricted Paarl to 144/8. Grundling led the reply with the bat. He scored 49 runs to take Grey to 145/6 to seal the deal. In the afternoon match, Menlopark beat Grey by 28 runs. The dangerous Steve Stolk (89 runs) took Menlopark to 244/5.
Grundling replied with a magnificent attacking innings of 95 runs (50b). Anfred Jansen did his part with 67 but Grey just didn’t do enough to get over the line, finishing on 216.
Grey did enough though to secure a spot in the quarter-finals where they met Westville on Saturday morning.
Cambiar batted beautifully for 92 runs. There was good support from Elkington (45) and Marco Giaconi (36) to secure a total of 195/6.
Cambier and Ben Ristow did good work with the ball to restrict Westville to 155. It was a victory by 40 runs to set up a semifinal clash with Grey College in the afternoon.
The Bloemfontein outfit won by 5 wickets. Grey High made 106/8 with Teun Kloppenburg doing the best with 37.
Likhona Gcora took two wickets, but it wasn’t the best performance in the field by Grey High and College cruised to 110/5.
It was a rematch with Menlopark on Sunday in a playoff for third place. Grey turned the tables on the Pretoria side to win by 6 wickets.
It was that man Stolk again who made life difficult for Grey with 117 runs in a total of 232/7. Led by Cambier with 92 runs, Grey reached 233/4 in the 18th over for victory.
