Three times South African champions win the Gauteng Coca-Cola® T20 Schools Challenge Provincial Final

St. Stithians College won the Gauteng Coca-Cola® T20 Schools Challenge Provincial Finals and now stand the chance of representing the Lions at the Coca-Cola T20 Schools Challenge national finals that will be played between the 15^th and 17^th March 2019 in Pretoria.

St. Stithians College have represented the Lions in the national finals four times and have won the tournament three times, the last time was in 2017. To represent the Lions in this year’s national final they will have to beat Hoër Volkskool Potchefstroom on the 6^th March at Wits.

This year’s provincial finals were affected by rain and were played over three days in February with eight teams playing in quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals. The schools that made this phase of the tournament were King Edward School, Trinity House Randpark, St. Johns College, Northcliff High School, Queens High School, Jeppe High School for Boys, St. Stithians College and Hoërskool Noordheuwel.

St. Stithians College beat Hoërskool Noordheuwel Potchefstroom by 2 wickets in the quarter-final, Jeppe High School for Boys by 3 wickets in the semi-final, and St. Johns College by 56 runs in the final.

Jodi de Sousa 48 and Liam Mostert 41 batted well for St Stithians to set up a very good total of 181/5 in the final against St Johns but in the first over of the St Johns innings Thomas Winte took the wickets of Bismark Olivier and Clayton Panther, two of the most consistent St Johns Batsmen, both for ducks and from there it would always be difficult for St Johns to win the game. 

The winner of the Franchise finals will join the other five franchises winners and the two schools that qualified though the CSA Focus School programme at the competition’s National Finals at the University of Pretoria from the 15th to 17th March 2019. The Coca-Cola T20 School Challenge winner stands to walk away with R110 000.00 for their school.

Results

Quarter-Final:

KES 224/1 (Jason Bracher 140*, Joshua Streak 51) vs Trinity House Randpark 104/9 (Michael Pfab 50, Keegan Jansen van Rensburg 3/11)

KES won by 120 runs

Noordheuwel 112/8 (Juan Nieuwenhuizen 38, Sebastian de Olivera 3/22) vs St Stithians 115/8 (Liam McCarthy 28, Franco Bekker 3/13)

St Stithians won by 2 wickets

St Johns 168/6 (Bismarck Olivier 62, Connor Esterhuizen 61, Josh Lambreecht 4/32) vs Northcliff 104/7 (Daniel Small 30, Jack Lees 2/27, Jack Stewart 2/23)

St Johns won by 64 runs

Jeppe 189/2 (Brayden Hicks 53, Linda Ndlovu 63) vs Queens 119/9 (Amogelang Sima 40, Cian Robertson 3/26)

Jeppe won by 70 runs

Semi-Final:

Jeppe 155/4 (Brayden Hicks 41, Levert Manje 45, Linda Ndlovu 31) vs St Stithians 156/7 (Cameron Rowe 49, Jodi de Sousa 45, Cian Robertson 2/21)

St Stithians won by 3 wickets

KES 136/9 (Keegan Jansen van Rensburg 29, Jack Lees 3/23) vs St Johns 139/4 (Jack Lees 40*, Hayden Israel 33*)

St Johns won by 6 wickets

Final:

St Stithians 181/5 (Jodi de Sousa 48, Liam Mostert 41, Ethan van der Merwe 2/23) vs St Johns 125/8 (Nic Halstead-Cleak 64*, Thomas Winte 2/15, Liam Mc Carthy 2/26)

St Stithians won by 56 runs