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NORTHWOOD SCHOOL WIN BATTLE OF KWAZULU-NATAL

17 Jan 20254 mins

Cricket lovers were treated to two intriguing days of action in Pietermaritzburg, featuring the two KwaZulu-Natal Inland qualifiers Hilton College and co-hosts Maritzburg College as well as Glenwood High School and the triumphant Knights, the KwaZulu-Natal Coastal qualifiers.

REWATCH THE FINAL: All the runs and wickets via the SuperSport Schools App

Day 1’s action saw the four cross-provincial fixtures, with Northwood laying down a marker against Hilton by beating them by 5 wickets in the morning’s action while, at the same time, Maritzburg College were won by the same margin against Glenwood.

Come the afternoon, Hilton kept their hopes alive by relatively comfortably beating Glenwood by 27 runs to dash any hopes of National Finals the Durbanites might have had. Down the road, at Pietermaritzburg Oval, Maritzburg’s bowlers helped their batters out by bowling Northwood out for 93 to claim a 12-run wicket and earn the early favourites tag with two-wins-from-two.

Come Day 2, all of Maritzburg, Hilton and Northwood were in the running to play in the afternoon’s final. Northwood all but sealed their place by repeating their provincial victory over Glenwood, this time by 6 wickets. On the neighbouring oval, the iconic Goldstone’s’ Maritzburg were looking to make home advantage count – especially when they reduced Hilton to 101/8 in their allotted 20 overs. However, the home team completely wilted during their run chase… collapsing to 55 all out in 13.4 overs.

With all three contenders left on two wins, calculators had to make an appearance, and it was Hilton and Northwood who claimed the two places in the final.

In the decider, Hilton batted first for the fourth time in a row and Northwood took the ball for the fourth time in a row.

Openers, Ben Hockly (21 off 15, 1x4, 1x6) and Alex Pitman set a solid base reaching 51 before Hockly departed. Robert Burman (12 off 16) was next to go, with the score on 91, having witnessed Pitman bring up the first individual fifty of the two days.

As it happened, Pitman was next to fall, caught and bowled by Ben Cilliers, for a well-constructed 58 off 48 balls (6x4) – leaving Hilton on 97/3. Free-scoring had been difficult throughout the regionals, and Hilton’s middle-order found the same in the final as none of them managed a run-a-ball strike rate. Nonetheless, the 131/6 they managed to eke out in their 20 overs seemed a challenging enough total.

Northwood’s opening pair, David de Bruyn and Ross McGlashan set about proving that scoring could happen at a decent pace, combining for 66 before the more aggressive McGlashan was caught-in-front for 40 off 31 (1x4, 2x6). De Bruyn fell five runs later, Simon Steyn’s (2/21) accounting for him for 29 off 34 balls.

Kyle White then joined Tuswa Phetha in the middle and their 59-run partnership proved decisive as despite White’s dismissal in the 19th over for, his 28 off 21 (1x6) have the impetus to Northwood’s innings. Jamie Wimble (8 not out off 6, 1x4) did his bit and Phetha (23 not out off 26) held his nerve to see Shaun Pollock and Keshav Maharaj’s alma mater home with two balls to spare to clinch a place in the Schools SA20 National Finals, set for March in Pretoria.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Northwood Brass Band are in their second year of being the Durban’s Super Giants’ official ‘Vibe Tribe’ during SA20 matches at Kingsmead.