The schools of Nelson Mandela Bay produced some excellent performances at the Pearson Cricket Festival, to confirm we are in for a wonderful season.
Matches were played at various venues around the Bay over four days, in a great start to the new season.
Some schools played five matches in the tournament, which ended on Sunday.
Pearson High School can be proud of organising another top-class festival, and even prouder of their team that was in excellent form, playing at their Gqeberha home ground. Pearson won all five of their matches.
Grey High played three matches and was equally impressive, winning them all comfortably. Tristan Grundlingh got stuck in straight away, with a lovely century in the first match against Stirling (East London).
Grundlingh scored an unbeaten 102 runs in a score of 202/1. Stirling replied with 146/8, for Grey to win by 56 runs.
The century maker was at it again in the next match, but this time with the ball. Grundlingh took 4/62 against Parel Vallei from Cape Town.
Parel Vallei was bowled out for 205 runs, and Grey reached the target to win by five wickets. This time Joel Maree was the batting hero with an unbeaten 72 runs.
It was another victory by five wickets for Grey in their last match against the North West school, Potch Gimmies. Gimmies made 137, but it wasn’t enough.
Jean Upman led the Grey run chase with his knock of 56 runs.
Pearson started their winning streak by beating Stirling by 44 runs. Cayden Wilson (39*) was the top scorer in a total of 131/5. In their reply, Stirling could only manage 87/6.
It was a massive victory over York (George), when Pearson won by 179 runs. Pearson made 207/4 and York was bowled out for a paltry 28 runs.
Divan Els (65) and Wilson (49) were the batting stars. Wilson was also the chief destroyer with the ball, taking four wickets in 17 balls without conceding a run!
Wilson produced another fine bowling performance, taking 3/21, to restrict Potch Gimmies to 163 runs in Pearson’s next match.
This was a match played in the time format on Friday, and Pearson made a solid 234/7. Gimmies batted for a second time but again struggled against quality bowling and reached 59/5 when a halt was called.
Pearson continued their good batting form against Hudson Park (East London), scoring 203 runs. Esa Gangat excelled with the ball, taking 4/24, and Hudson Park was bowled out for 105 runs. Pearson won this encounter by 98 runs.
In the last match on Sunday, Pearson beat Queen’s College (Komani), with Luke Hector hitting an unbeaten 38 runs off 40 deliveries.
