The Johnny Waite Knockout competition, the Gauteng T20 tournament that doubles up as the preliminary stage of the Coca-Cola T20 Schools Challenge, is under way and the top-seeded teams all recorded big wins in their opening games, writes THEO GARRUN.
The seedings were done according to where the teams finished last season. Defending champions King Edward are the top seeds and have already had easy wins over Queens and Fourways.
In the first round, they beat Queens by 94 runs and last Wednesday they beat Fourways by 10 wickets after bowling them out for just 33. Bryce Parsons took 4-9 and Obakeng Maila 3-1.
No 2 seeds St Stithians comfortably beat Northcliff in the first round and followed that up with a nine-wicket win over Dainfern last Wednesday.
St John’s (seeded in third place) beat Noordheuwel by eight wickets in their first outing, and followed that up with a 75-run victory over Randburg in their second match.
Fifth-seeded Jeppe have played one game so far, beating St David’s (seeded fourth) by 96 runs.
David Okaro of Redhill was the first batsman to make a century in the series. He smashed 122 off just 64 balls with 14 fours and four sixes against Maragon. Redhill won by 113 runs.
Scores
Redhill 209-1 (David Okaro 122, Aidan Lakmeerharan 62)
Maragon 96 (David Okaro 2-13, Ashlee Harvey 2-11)
Redhill won by 113 runs
St John’s 215-4 (Nic Halstead-Cleak 68, Riyaad Haferjee 86)
Randburg 140-9 (Jack Stewart 3-16)
St John’s won by 75 runs
Jeppe 175-2 (Breidyn Schaper 70 not out, Levert Manje 52, Alec van der Kruit 41)
St David’s 108-8 (Jared Lauten 2-30)
Jeppe won by 69 runs
Dainfern 116-6
St Stithians 117-1
St Stithians won by nine wickets
Fourways 33 (Bryce Parsons 4-9, Obakeng Maila 3-1)
KES 34-0
King Edward won by 10 wickets
The next round of fixtures is likely to throw up another batch of mismatches as the seeded schools face the minnows. King Edward host Maragon, St David’s play Lenasia, Jeppe take on Trinityhouse and St John’s host Beaulieu.
This week’s fixtures
King Edward vs Maragon
Queens vs Fourways
St David’s vs Lenasia
Jeppe vs Trinityhouse
St John’s vs Beaulieu
Noordheuwel vs Randburg
St Stithians vs Parktown
Northcliff vs Dainfern
These are the last games of the year. There will be two more rounds of round-robin play early next year, followed by the playoff games. The final is scheduled for 27 February. The next week the Gauteng winners will play the Northwest provincial champions to determine who the Lions Franchise representatives will select for the national week which takes place in March.
Photo: Theo Garrun
