Wits cricket move closer to top spot
Wits Cricket Club picked up an important victory against Randburg Cricket Club on Sunday.
CRICKET: Randburg gives Wits the edge
Croxley Wits Cricket Club lost by two wickets in their league match against Randburg Cricket Club last Sunday.
The teams were evenly matched but Randburg managed to limit Wits’ total to 184.
Randburg coach, Kurt Human said his team’s performance went according to plan. “We wanted to come in here and try and restrict them … what we wanted was to bowl first and get four wickets down earlier on,” he said.
Tiro Madiseng, Randburg captain added, “Patience was the key for us. We’re hoping to get as close as possible to the top because they bit us the first time.”
Wits captain Nono Pongolo said their batting was not what they had hoped it would be, “we let ourselves down with the bat, losing soft wickets”.
The second half of the match saw Wits bowling soft balls giving Randburg the chance to score easy runs.
“Thanks to the bowlers we got a decent score that gave us a fighting chance. We fought well, but they wanted it more in the end,”
After a short break Randburg lost 4 wickets in quick succession, slowing their pace.
Even though Wits managed to push a little more, the team was a little too late when Randburg finished the game with a total of 191-8.
“We had a couple of half chances we did not hold on to, if we held on to those two or three chances we could have had three to five wickets down by now,” said player-coach Neil Levenson said.
“Thanks to the bowlers we got a decent score that gave us a fighting chance. We fought well, but they (Randburg) wanted it more in the end,” Pongolo said.
Even though Randburg managed to score 13 more points in the league for winning the game, Wits still remains in second place.
Wits still has two more games to play until the Gauteng Premier league is over.
Wits Cricket heading to the top
WICKET DOWN: All-rounder Imeraan Fredricks leaves the field after only batting a few runs. Photo: Lutho Mtongana
Wits University is hoping to walk away with a comprehensive win against Randburg Cricket Club this Sunday in a time format game at home.
Croxley Wits Cricket is currently second on the Gauteng Premier league table with Old Parktonian Cricket Club in top spot. Randburg is currently in 6th place.
Wits will be relying on their bowling and fielding strength and hoping to improve on their batting performance in this weekend’s game.
Player-coach Neil Levenson, a former Randburg head coach, says he knows that Randburg has a good bowling unit with experienced players but says their batting is weak and he hopes his team will capitalise on this.
The plan is to “put them under pressure by leading with a good score”, Levenson said.
Wits batsman Nono Pongolo said they want to “carry on batting well. “Posting big scores so that we can have a chance of bowling them twice.”
But, Pongolo said, Wits lacks a strong batting partnership as they are still a young team. He believes though that if they carry on batting well, combined with their strong bowling unit, Wits will be “difficult to beat”.
Levenson added that he had a good relationship with Randburg players and when he was with them cricket was different, “it was about developing their players … They are an experienced team now.”
Last Sunday the team played their strongest opposition in Dobsonville Cricket Club and drew the match after running out of time.
The premier league is played in a time format with two innings a day and 60 overs. In the first innings there are 10 wickets and the second, five. Wits cricket have three games left.
Wits has played 7 games since the league started, won three, lost two and drew 2. They have three games in hand before the league finishes at the end of March.
Another easy win for Wits cricket
BATSMAN: JC Maritz, Croxley Wits Cricket Club batsman. He managed to bat 111 runs before he was bowled out yesterday. Photo: Lutho Mtongana
After bowling out Roshnee Cricket Club who only managed 96 runs in the first innings, Croxley Wits showed their dominance despite playing in difficult weather conditions at home yesterday.
The second innings was just as easy for Wits who piled on the runs and declared at 250-5 with a lead of 154 runs.
“I think we executed our plans today. The plan was to bowl them out early and then bat once, declare and then bowl again, so we’re on track for that,” said Wits captain Joshua Datnow.
The batting partnership of JC Maritz and Rob Hendricks gave Wits a solid start with 157 runs with a wicket down.
Maritz was one of the leading batsmen of the day and was bowled out after he managed 111 runs.
Maqsood Saley, Roshnee score-keeper, said his team had lost a number of players during off season last year and had not had enough time to practice with the remaining guys in the team.
“We have weaknesses in both the batting and the bowling, the bowling is alright but the batting is too bad … Fielding is also bad, we dropped a lot of catches. I just think that Wits is the better team,” Saley added.
Wits declared after five wickets, leaving Roshnee to chase 157 to win. The bad light and poor interruptions only seem to weaken the Roshnee side who finished on 42-4 by 6pm.
The Cricket Premier League is played in a timely format with two innings in a day. On Saturday Wits Cricket played Crescents in Lenasia which resulted in a draw.
Wits’ next game is away against its biggest competitor Dobsonville.
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