Thursday 18 November 2021: It’s been a busy term of cricket for the Wynberg boys with a number of superb individual and team performances.
The U14 squad, after the disappointment of missing the tour to Hilton in KwaZulu-Natal due to that province’s covid challenges, started off with a very good win against Paul Roos in the season’s warm-up game. The U15 A squad pulled off a very solid 3 wicket win against the same opposition as they prepared for their tour to the Grey High School U15 Festival held in the first week of the holidays. [Read the Holiday Tour Report]
After the short holiday break, the 1st Team grabbed a very good 18 run win against Bishops at the Frank Reid 2 days prior to departing for the North-South Tournament in Gauteng.
The North-South T20 tournament held at Camp Discovery outside Pretoria is a brilliant opportunity for the schools from the Cape to travel up north and play a very different brand of cricket. The flat wickets, altitude, and small grounds make for a real run feast for the batters and pure toil for the bowlers.
Wynberg was drawn in the group with Grey High school, Waterkloof, and St Andrew’s Bloemfontein.
The 1st match against St Andrew’s proved a tight affair with Wynberg losing by 3 runs in a game we controlled for large periods. This would prove crucial as the tournament progressed. Our second match against Waterkloof was a massive test, batting first against a quality bowling attack and being completely outplayed by the opposition to lose by 9 wickets.
The Grey High School game proved to be one of our better performances as we managed a bonus point win against the eventual tournament winners. This was however not enough to improve our net Run rate to get us into the Top 8 on the final two days.
Two good wins over Westville and Rustenburg in the last 3 games ensured a decent finish after the disappointment on Day 1. This group of cricketers would have gained valuable experience over the challenging 4 days in Pretoria. The youngsters on their first tour really showed some promise and perhaps were let down by some of their more senior teammates who quite simply did not play to their potential.
The Bishops league fixtures had severe rain interruptions on the Friday and Saturday but the 14A managed to complete a fine win before the rain had the last say.
The 15A re-scheduled their match to a mid-week day/night match at Frank Reid and Daniel Lategan’s fine 100 ensured a very clinical 7 wicket win after the 1st XI had managed a 4 wicket win, also on the Frank Reid mid-week. The 2nd XI also played a Day night match to make up for the rain-affected weekend and ended up winning by 66 runs against Bishop’s 2nd XI.
The Paarl Boys fixtures also had to contend with some heavy overnight rain and a few cancellations. The 1st XI match had to be moved to Silverhurst after the covers on the JK oval had blown off and for the 5 matric boys playing their last game, this would not end in a victory with Paarl boys getting over the line with 7 wickets down.
The U14A and 15A squads maintained their good start to the term with good wins against Boys high.
Parel Vallei travelled to Wynberg for a number of fixtures and the highlight 1st XI player Kyle Williams’ 2nd 100 of the term and Naas Beets 5/12 led to a comfortable victory for the firsts.
Mohammed Ameen Schroeder became the second U14A boy to score a 100 this year as his team scored 266/9 and won by 131 runs.
A fantastic substitute performance from Shukri Abrahams who volunteered at late notice for the 3rd XI when a stomach bug left a few spots open proved to be one of the highlights of the term for me. WBHS 3rd XI chasing 212 to win found themselves in deep trouble needing 66 runs to win with only 1 wicket remaining. Shukri Abrahams and the gritty Kyle le Riche managed to salvage an incredible 1 wicket victory against the odds to bring their team home.
The Rondebosch weekend saw a number of close encounters and some very good individual and team performances. The U14A defending 145 after an impressive 70 from opener Storme van Rooyen had the much-fancied Bosch line up faltering at 5/5 with skipper Hilton Botha taking his 2nd hattrick in the week. Credit to Rondebosch as they clawed their way back to win the game. The U15A pulled off another comprehensive 100 run win over Rondebosch with Daniel Lategan recording his 2nd 100 of the term, Xavier Garvs continuing his superb form with 50, and Divan Linde picking up a very important 5 wicket haul.
The 1st XI playing without the 5 matric boys were outplayed by 9 wickets by a competitive Bosch 1st XI at Cricket A. The WBHS 2nd and 3rd teams pulled of good wins to maintain their solid start to the term.
The SACS weekend provided many good games of cricket. The U14C set the bar very high as they chased down 165 with 2 wickets down and 5 overs to spare on Spencer Smith. Mr Herbert’s fine men in the 14D showed some character to come back from a couple of close defeats to end up 7 wicket winners.
Fahad Khan in the 2nd team scored his first 100 to enable his team to win by 71 runs. The 3rd XI beat SACS by 225 runs after scoring an impressive 314/7 on Silverhurst A with Chris Malan 76 leading the charge.
Ethan Leibrandt continued his superb form for the U15A as he scored 70* to help chase down 255 on Memorial after his team had found themselves 140/5 and staring down their 1st defeat of the term.
The 1st XI lost by 6 wickets to SACS at de Villiers after only managing 177/9 in their 50 overs.
Key highlights for the term would be Jesse Prodehl’s selection into the SA U19 squad in September, a fantastic achievement for someone who has really worked incredibly hard at his game.
Juan James (Grade 11), Tyler Williams, and Jesse Prodehl (both Grade 12) have been selected into the Western Province Coke week squad with Daniel Lategan (Grade 9), Fayyaad Davids, and Sange Mbuto (both Grade 10) selected into the WP U16 team. We would like to wish these boys well as they compete with the top players in the country in their respective age groups.
Covid has proved a challenge for all sports codes over the past 20 months and it has led to at least 4 of our Matric stalwarts missing out on getting their names on the 100 Cap board in the Algie Pavilion. We can however be grateful that this 4th term has provided the boys with an opportunity to train, compete, and most importantly learn the many valuable lessons that the game of cricket has to offer Wynberg cricketers!
Supera Moras
Mr Andrew Wylie
WBHS Director of Cricket
