St. Andrew’s School in Bloemfontein will look to recapture their national T20 Schools title of 2018 this weekend when they will be playing in the annual finals taking place at the University of Pretoria.
Saints will be representing the VKB Knights once again this year after winning the provincial title, and then dispatching the Northern Cape representative, Yorkshire RPC, in Kimberley last week.
Yorkshire won the toss and invited the Free Staters to bat first.
Saints scored 157/9 in their allotted 20 overs. Captain, JD Bruwer, led the charge with a knockout of 53-runs, while Reeza Alexander contributed with 29.
Paseka Jonkers and Boipelo Mancwe each bagged two wickets for the hosts.
Yorkshire got off to a reasonable start with the bat with a first wicket stand of 34 runs, but after that the wickets kept tumbling. Mancwe was the only batsman to trouble the scorers with an innings of 27 runs.
For Saints, Tristan Wylie was the pick of the bowlers with 3/12 in three overs, while Liam Doherty claimed 2/3 in 1.3 overs.
This week it will be a whole different kettle of fish for Saints as they will be going up against the best in the country, and it doesn’t get any harder than the opening day of tournament.
At 9:30 on Friday morning Saints will go head-to-head with the Titans representative, Hoërskool Waterkloof, on the Tuks C field. At 14:00 they will be up against the multiple champions, St Stithians College, who represent the Lions.
On Saturday at 9:30 they will be playing in their final Pool A match when they face Queens High School, who is the inland focus school for tournament. Depending on their first three matches, they will face either Kearsney College (Dolphins), SACS (Cape Cobras), Grey High School (Warriors) or Graeme College (coast focus school), in the first of the cross-pool games. – MORGAN PIEK
