St Andrew’s School of Bloemfontein, representing the Knights franchise, are the 2018 Coca-Cola Schools T20 Challenge champions, beating Hilton College by six wickets in a thrilling final at Tukkies on Sunday afternoon. THEO GARRUN reports.
Hilton batted first and made a modest 123-7 in their 20 overs, which didn’t look like it was ever going to be enough. But when they had St Andrew’s three down for one run after four overs, it looked like they were going to take it comfortably.
READ MORE: Hilton march on in Pretoria
The St Andrew’s pair of Garnett Tarr and Ruan Cronje then got together and put on 105 runs for the fourth wicket. Tarr was out for 44 with two overs to go, leaving it to Cronje to see them home. He finished on an unbeaten 65, hitting the winning runs off the second-last ball of the day.
Earlier in the day, Hilton convincingly beat King Edward by 64 runs, while St Andrew’s were too strong for Graeme College, beating them by 56 runs.
Ross Whitelaw followed up his fireworks in the five-over game against KES on Saturday, when he hit 38 off just nine balls, by top-scoring on the final day, smashing 81 off 53 balls (6×4, 4×6) for St Alban’s against Prestige College.
There were three other big half-centuries on the day. Clive Flanagan of St Andrew’s made 64 against Graeme College; Robert McGaw scored an unbeaten 76 for Hilton against KES; and Matthew Dewar of Selborne made 67 for the Coca-Cola All Stars side against a CSA Development Hub XI.
The All Stars vs CSA Hub game was a new development this year, which saw a team chosen from all the losing Franchise finalists around the country play in a curtain-raiser to the final. They beat the development side by 13 runs.
The best bowling figures of the day came from Liam Agnew who took 4-31 in his four overs for St Andrew’s in their morning game against Graeme.
Individual Awards
Batsman of the tournament – Robert McGaw (Hilton)
Bowler of the tournament – Henre Koekemoer (St Andrew’s)
Player of the tournament – James Ritchie (Hilton)
Summarised Scoreboards
St Alban’s 153-3: Whitelaw 81, Williamson 39
Prestige 64: Mothise 14, Hulme 2-13, Ridgway 2-16, Jeeva 2-4
St Alban’s won by 89 runs
Rondebosch 105-9: Mates 26*, Klein 26, Van Vuuen 3-17. Biggs 2-13
Grey High 106-4: Stubbs 49*, Moore 2-18
Grey High won by 6 wickets
St Andrew’s 165-6: Flanagan 64, Cronje 44*, Agnew 4-31
Graeme College 109: Amm 27, Cronje 2/17, Schoeman 2/5
St Andrew’s won by 56 runs
Hilton 149-4: Ritchie 46, Mc Gaw 76*, Crawshaw 3-16
King Edward 85: Botha 34, Booth 3-16, Frost 3-14
Hilton won by 64 runs
Coca-Cola All Stars 108-9: Dewar 67, Yeki 2-11, Molefe 2-23
SA Hub Development XI 94: Mzikhona 14, Zacharia 2-16, Fourie 2-16
Coca-Cola All Stars won by 13 runs
Final
Hilton 123-7: Sckanders 27, Koekemoer 3-11
St Andrew’s 126-4: Tarr 44, Cronje 65*
St Andrew’s won by 6 wickets.
Photo: Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images
