The inaugural season of Varsity Cricket kicked off on Tuesday, 03 February 2014 with six thrilling matches offering plenty of entertainment – and the University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) cricket team excelled.
UJ claimed two wins in their two matches, beating UWC and Maties in their two matches of the day. Tuks also claimed two wins out of their two matches, beating Stellenbosch and NMMU as the tournament got off to a flying start with non-stop action across three different venues. UCT and Pukke also bagged a win each with victories over Kosvies and NMMU respectively.
UJ comes second on the log with eight points after day one, while Tuks are top of the table with nine points, and UWC are bottom of the log.
It was a day filled with fanfare as cheerleaders kept the crowd going while players got to grips with the newly introduced Power Play Plus over, which sees runs scored during the over doubled while a loss of a wicket results in five penalty runs being added to the bowling side’s total.
The tournament continues on today (Wednesday) with six more matches that promise to deliver even more excitement as Varsity Cricket continues to break all the rules of conventional T20 cricket.
First matches:
UJ vs UWC: UJ won by 29 runs
UJ: 155/9 (H van Straaten 31, Y Valli, 25; D Christians 2/17, J Smith 2/17)
Tuks vs Maties: Tuks won by 36 runs
Tuks: 168/5 (J Snyman 61, M Coetzee 49; N Scholtz 2/23, J Dill 1/30)
Maties: 132/8 (L le Roux 45, J Marais 26; C Bosch 3/19, R Claassen 3/21)
UWC: 131 all out (J Smith 30, I Hendricks 27; K Dudgeon 4/26, H van Straaten 4/2
UCT vs Kovsies: UCT won by 7 wickets
UFS Kovsies: 151/6 (M Erlank 29, I Finlay 24; J Leppan 2/27, S Golding 2/23)
UCT: 155/3 (J Newby 59, R Tissiman 41; J van Dyk 1/16, K Rafferty 1/19)
Pukke vs NMMU: Pukke won by 11 runs
NWU Pukke: 176/9 (W Lubbe 55, J Malan 36; S Nqweni 4/37, B Dolley 2/16)
NMMU: 170/8 (D White 28, B Dolley 24; H du Plooy 3/32, J Malan 2/17)
Second matches”
UJ vs Maties: UJ won by 3 runs
UJ: 181/4 (D Potgieter 53,Y Valli 49; N Botha 3/24, D Botha 1/26)
Maties: 178/6 (J Bredenkamp 41, D Botha 36; N Mvelase 2/25, H van Straaten 2/33)
Notes on scoring:
In cases where there is a difference between winning margins and team totals, it means a team lost a wicket (or wickets) during the Power Play Plus Over. A loss of a wicket during this over would have originally resulted in the loss of five runs for the batting side, but due to a scoring system complication, they are now being added to the bowling team’s total as penalty runs instead.
