Kingswood perform well to draw with St Andrew's, beat Graeme

KINGSWOOD and St Andrew's fought out to a draw in a typically tough derby schools cricket match in Grahamstown at the weekend.

Batting first after winning the toss, Kingswood lost two early wickets before Michael Hansel and Marco Lombard got them out of trouble. However, both batsmen were out to poor shots, giving the momentum back to St Andrew's. Kingswood then rebuilt through another superb partnership between Matthew Thorp (40) and Brad Haller (55).

For St Andrew's, Murray Leith made inroads as Kingswood tried to accelerate after lunch, ending with 2/24, while Mbulelo Mama claimed 3/53.

Sintu Manjezi was also effective in the latter part of the innings, which kept Kingswood from getting near the 230 mark. As a result, Kingswood could not quite dominate in the closing stages and they had to settle for 218 after 65 overs.

In response, the Kingswood bowlers were superb, matched by some fine fielding.

Haller continued his fine all-round performance as Sean Biggs took a brilliant diving catch to dismiss Andrew Rushmere off his bowling.

Chadd Drake held on to an even better catch to dismiss Leith and when Haller bowled Mama, Kingswood were in the pound seats.

Charlie Bowren led a St Andrew's fightback with a knock of 39 and Tyler Paul lent good support to take them to 111 for four with 23 overs left.

But they were then dismissed in quick succession and St Andrew's closed up shop, getting through the final 20 overs without losing a wicket, to end on 141 for six.

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AFTER losing to Graeme College the previous weekend, Kingswood hit back to defeat the Graemians in the Albany district semifinals of the Cricket SA Twenty20 competition.

Sent into bat, Kingswood made a cracking start, with Michael Hansel scoring a quickfire 37. But it was Matthew Thorp who did the most damage, with nine fours and five sixes in his 94 not out off 48 balls.

This took his team to an imposing 193 for seven and the Kingswood bowlers soon pressed home their advantage to reduce Graeme to five for three.

Graeme then batted out the remaining overs to end on 80 for three, giving Kingswood victory by 113 runs.