St Charles clinched the KwaZulu-Natal Inland Schools T20 Challenge provincial title when they beat Michaelhouse by 60 runs in the final at Michaelhouse on Friday, writes THEO GARRUN.
The Dolphins franchise final will be between Westville Boys’ High and St Charles College. The playoff to decide which KZN school will represent the province at the competition’s national finals, will take place at the Pietermaritzburg Oval on Friday 22 February.
The eight schools that met at Michaelhouse last Thursday for the KZN Inland quarterfinals were Michaelhouse, Hilton, Maritzburg College, St Charles, Vryheid High School, St Dominic’s Newcastle, Ladysmith High School and Dundee High School.
As expected, the four boys’ schools went through to the semis, with Michaelhouse defeating Maritzburg College, and St Charles eliminating last year’s Dolphins representatives, Hilton.
St Charles batted first in the final and made 164 in their 20 overs. Their Zimbabwe U19 player, Clive Madande, smashed 71 off 56 balls to set the tone, and he was to take four wickets later on, which earned him the Man of the Match award.
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Michaelhouse were then removed for 104 in the 16th over. Madande did the damage with the ball, assisted by his fellow Zimbabwe U19 player, and the team captain, Wessley Madhevere, who took 3-17.
The day scheduled for the Dolphins final is 22 February, which is the second day of the Independent Schools cricket festival to be hosted by St Alban’s College. St Charles have been involved in that event for a long time, so there will be another clash of dates. It seems that the organisers of the competition have, rather unwisely, not considered the traditional commitments of the schools when drawing up their fixtures.
Various provincial finals in other parts of the country have been affected by rain and will only be completed over the weekend and early next week.
The Boland provincial playoffs take place this Saturday and Sunday, with the playoffs in Gauteng, Eastern Province, Northwest and SWD all scheduled for the coming week.
Summarised Scores
Semifinals
Maritzburg College 124-8 (Andrew Todd 29; Jared Meiring 3-18)
Michaelhouse 125-7 (Jared Meiring 28, Gavin Veenstra 29, Luke Gammie 26; Chad Fortman 2-17, Kent Goedeke 2-28)
Michaelhouse won by 3 wickets
Hilton 67 (Kian Channon 3-10)
St Charles 68-7 (Thomas Dixon 2-14, Colby Dyer 2-16)
St Charles won by 3 wickets
Final
St Charles 164-4 (Clive Madande 71, Nathan Lunderstadt 31)
Michaelhouse 104 (Gavin Veenstra 37; Clive Madande 4-14, Wessley Madhevere 3-7)
St Charles won by 60 runs
Photo: St Charles College (Facebook)
