Sport

Saints Crowned Champ… Again

St Andrews School has won the Free State finals of the Coca-Cola T20 Schools Challenge.

The school will play against Northern Cape High School to have the opportunity to represent the Knights in the national finals.

This year’s provincial finals were played over two days at St Andrews High School and started off with a round robin tournament where Grey College, Goudveld High School, HUB Kroonstad, St Andrews School, Hoërskool Voortrekker and Sasolburg High School played against each other to see who would represent their province at the franchise finals.

St Andrews beat Sasolburg High School by 100 runs, Hoërskool Voortrekker by 176 runs, and Grey College by three wickets in the final to finish as the only unbeaten team in the tournament.

There were many outstanding performances by the team. Pheko Moletsane took 3/7 against their old nemesis Grey College, Naleki Sekhibane took 4/7 against Sasolburg High School where Ruan Cronje scored 100* while Corne Viljoen posted 58* and Henre Koekemoer 56 did well against Hoërskool Voortrekker.

The winner of the franchise finals will join other five 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 March 15 to 17, 2019.

The Coca-Cola T20 School Challenge winner stands to walk away with R110 000.00 for their school.

Saints’ coach Gregg Hobson said the two Saturday matches helped his batsmen regain some much-needed confidence. However, the bowling and fielding played a far greater role in the side’s success.

Pheko Moletsane and Ruan Cronjé are back to their best with the ball, he said.

Hobson also credited the PitchVision equipment with helping to identify a technical issue with Ruan’s bowling. Once it was speedily resolved, he was on song again.

By: Thapelo Molebatsi