The Coca-Cola Schools T20 national finals week starts in Stellenbosch on Friday, 22 February, 2013. It will see six schools representing the six Cricket South Africa franchises play four games each, with the top two going through to the final on Sunday, which will be played as a curtain raiser to the Ram Slam T20 Challenge Match between the Cape Cobras and the Dolphins at Newlands.
The participating schools have come though their own provincial knockout tournaments, followed by showdowns with the winners of the other provincial champions in each franchise region.
This year’s lineup has two familiar faces, and four who are making an appearance at this level for the first time. Those who are back again are Pretoria’s Hoërskool Waterkloof (Titans), who play in the finals for the third time, and who won the title in 2011, and Westville Boys’ High, who represented the Dolphins last year.
The newcomers are St Andrew’s School of Bloemfontein, who will represent the Knights; Johannesburg’s St Stithians College (Lions); Framesby of Port Elizabeth (Warriors) and Rondebosch Boys’ High (Cobras).
The 20-over format, with its unpredictability, is always going to throw up surprises and this year’s fairytales are St Andrew’s and Framesby. St Andrew’s are busy celebrating their 150th anniversary in style. They not only had to see off mighty Grey College to take the Free State title, but then came up against Hoërskool Noord-Kaap, the Griquas champs, in the Knights franchise final. Noord-Kaap has been at the national finals three times and are the 2012 champions.
St Andrew’s came through, and with the help of Sinebhongo Ntshona their off-spinner who has been on duty with the Coca-Cola SA under-19 side, who are playing a Youth Series in Cape Town against England. they are certainly in with a chance.
Framesby have had possibly the toughest task making it through to the finals. They had to play Grey High and St Andrew’s, among others, in their PE area, then face Union High from the inland area, before facing Hudson Park, the Border champions.
According to their cricket director, Chris Van Niekerk, they have a young side that has been molded by the tough experience of nine knockout games in a row. “More than half the squad will be back next year, and our two stars, Andre Emiljo and Ernest Stapelberg, represented Eastern Province at under-15 and under-17 level, respectively,” he said.
“Our strength is definitely in our bowling attack, but we showed in chasing down a big total against Grey that we can bat too. Everyone is very excited about this opportunity to show what we can do at a national level,” concluded Van Niekerk.
It’s also St Stithians College’s first opportunity at this level. They will be bolstered by the return of Coca-Cola U-19 national team fast bowler Kagiso Rabada. Their cricket director, Wim Jansen, is confident that they have the side to do well. “Apart from Radaba’s pace, we have two good spinners in Jean Landsberg and Marcus Ackerman,” he said.
“Our strength is probably in our batting, however, Ryan Rickleton is in great from as a batsman. He has been well supported by Luke Stanger and the captain, Angus Ellis-Cole.”
Waterkloof make a record-equaling third appearance at the Coca-Cola Schools T20 finals and their director of cricket, Neels de Villiers is confident that they have the balance in the side to put them in with a chance of winning the title for a second time. “It was a tough task getting through the Northerns region of the competition,” he said. “We had to beat Affies, Pretoria Boys’ High, Centurion and Menlo Park. After that we beat the Limpopo and Easterns winners quite comfortably.”
De Villiers believes their key players at the tournament are going to be batsmen Janneman Malan and Danie Rossouw, while in spinners, Reynard Grobler and Divan Bester, they have potential match-winners.
Cobras representative Rondebosch Boys’ High must be one of the favourites going into the tournament. They have three members of last year’s very successful Western Province side from the Coca-Cola Khaya Majola Cricket Week still in their ranks including SA Colts player Hayes Van der Berg. The other two are quick bowler Dayyan Galiem and batsman Zubayr Hamza. No fewer than seven other members of the squad represented Western Province at age group level last year.
“The Coca-Cola T20 Schools national final is a culmination of six months of gruelling qualifiers,” said Craig van Niekerk, Coca-Cola SA Marketing Assets Manager. “The six teams to play in the Western Cape are South Africa’s top U-19 school teams in this format of the game and from a Coca-Cola perspective we are proud to have been able to create the platform to allow cricketers to showcase their talent, to be recognised and to share their achievements – as expressed in our campaign expression: ‘Show Your Class”
Fixtures
• Friday morning games - Titans v Cobras, Warriors v Knights, Dolphins v Lions.
• Friday afternoon games - Titans v Dolphins, Lions v Warriors, Cobras v Knights.
• Saturday morning games - Lions v Cobras, Knights v Titans, Warriors v Dolphins.
• Saturday afternoon games - Titans v Lions, Cobras v Warriors, Dolphins v Knights.
• Sunday – final.
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