Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Paarl Gimnasium win to represent Cobras franchise in 2019 Coca-Cola® Schools T20 Challenge National Finals





Paarl Gimnasium beat South Africa College High School (SACS) and Langenhoven Gimnasium at the Cobras franchise final of the Coca-Cola® Schools T20 Challenge. The Cobras franchise consists of three unions Western Province, Boland and South Western Districts. The franchise final took place in a round robin tournament format.

Paarl Gimnasium played against SWD representative, Langenhoven Gimnasium, in the first match of the day. The Paarl bowlers put a lot of pressure on the Langenhoven Gimnasium batsmen and managed to bowl them out for 65. The pick of the bowlers were Juan Wilson 3/9, Pieter Rossouw 2/6 and Bradley Davids 2/8. Paarl took no time to knock off the runs to win by 9 wickets. Jandre Burger scored 37 runs before being bowled by Jaden Dyssel.

The second match of the day was between Langenhoven Gimnasium and South Africa College High School (SACS). SACS won the toss and sent Langenhoven in to bat. Langenhoven Gimnasium batted better than in their previous match but were still not able to convincingly put SACS under pressure.

Langenhoven Gimnasium scored 93 for 7 in their 20 overs with Matthew Klusener being the pick of the bowlers with 2 wickets for 15 runs. SACS chased the total down for the loss of 2 wickets in the 14th over Daniel Smith was not out for 46 runs and Michael Levitt scored 41 runs.

The final match of the day was between Paarl Gimnasium and SACS where the winner of the match would be the Cobras champions and subsequent franchise representative. Paarl Gimnasium won the toss and sent SACS in to bat.

Paarl Gimnasium captain, Johan Smal, knew how important it was to win the toss, “We knew that SACS is a team that is good at chasing down totals so we sent them in to bat to put them out of their comfort zone and see if we can control them to a reasonable total.”
SACS got off to a great start and after 10 overs they were on 82/2 and they looked like they could go on to hit a massive total. However, Paarl Gimnasium improved their game and took wickets on a frequent basis reducing SACS to 149/8 in their allotted 20 overs. SACS only managed to score 69 runs and they lost 6 wickets in the final 10 overs.

Paarl Gimnasium batted sensibly in their run chase and were ahead of the run rate from the first over of the day. Even though they lost a couple of wickets they were never in trouble eventually winning by 8 wickets with 4 balls to spare. Once again Jandre Burger, 73 not out, was the pick of the batsmen. He batted throughout the innings and marshalled his team to victory.

SACS opening bowler Anda Dilima and Langenhoven Gimnasium wicketkeeper Jedhli Van Briesies were selected and will form part of  the Coca-Cola® All-Star team that will play at the National Finals in Pretoria. These players will get an opportunity to meet the other qualifying teams, have coaching sessions with Paul Harris and play against a Cricket South Africa selection side as a curtain raiser to the final of the Coca-Cola® T20 Schools Challenge.

Paarl Gimnasium will represent the Cobras and will join the other five franchises winners and the two schools that qualified through the CSA Focus School programme at the competition’s National Finals at the University of Pretoria from the 15th to 17th March.

Results
Langenhoven Gim 65 all out (Juan Wilson 3/9, Pieter Rossouw 2/6, Bradley Davids 2/8) vs Paarl Gimnasium 67/1 (Jandre Burger 37)
Paarl Gim won by 9 wickets

Langenhoven Gim 93/7 (Matthew Klusener 2/15) vs SACS 94/2 (Daniel Smith 46*)
SACS won by 8 wickets

SACS 149/8 (Michael Levitt 45, Daniel Smith 30, Jandre Burger 2/14) vs Paarl Gimnasium 154/2 (Jandre Burger 73*)
Paarl won by 8 wickets


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