The first day of the annual Coca-Cola Khaya Majola under-19 Week in Port Elizabeth belonged to the bowlers, more specifically the spin bowlers.
Four spinners, Sean Whitehead (Free State), Luke Philander (Boland), Dean Foxcroft (Northerns) and Nikolaas Davin (Namibia) managed to pick up five-wicket hauls in the Friendly City. A further two five-wicket hauls were achieved by medium-pacers, Jean de Wet (KZN Inland) and Tyron Koen (KwaZulu-Natal).
South Africa U19 spin bowler, Whitehead (6/44), finished with the best bowling figures of the day against arguably the best batting line-up at the tournament – Gauteng. It was, however, not enough to keep Gauteng from securing a victory on the first innings.
Whitehead bowled 25 overs on the trot from one end, eight of which were maidens. Gauteng was struggling early on at 6/3 after some good bowling by Marno van Greuning (3/17). Liam Smith (1), Ricardo Vasconcelos (0) and the national U19 captain, Tony de Zorzi (5), were back in the change-room without troubling the scorers too much.
The fourth-wicket partnership between Farhaan Sayanvala (52) and Wiaan Mulder (38) of 91 runs managed to get Gauteng to a more respectable total of 180. Whitehead (23) also stuck around with the bat in hand with Kevin Pretorius (23) for 16.2 overs to try and secure a draw.
Foxcroft (5/24), another national U19 player, helped the Northerns bowling attack restrict Eastern Province to a mild 139 runs. Northerns could only manage to answer 136/6 to that before the close of play.
Philander picked up his five wickets against South Western Districts (SWD) at the cost of 39 runs. All of SWD’s batsmen were back in the change room for 105 runs after Boland declared their first innings on 218/8.
Namibia’s Davin boasted astonishing bowling figures of 5/3 against Limpopo. This match was shortened to a limited overs match with Namibia coming out on top by 63 runs.
De Wet (5/5) also produced a marvellous performance as KwaZulu-Natal was restricted to a mere 90 runs. In KZN Inland’s innings Tyron Koen (5/21) caused most of the damage.
North West’s Ruan Haasbroek (101*) recorded the only century of the opening day. He struck 12 boundaries which included three maximums in his innings against Border.
Summarised Scorecards:
Gauteng first innings 180 (Farhaan Sayanvala 52, Wiaan Mulder 38; Sean Whitehead 6/44, Marno van Greuning 3/17);
Free State first innings 123 (Sean Whitehead 23, Kevin Pretorius 23; Conor McKerr 3/24);
Gauteng second innings 0/1 decl. (Dillon Aucamp 1/0).
Gauteng won on first innings.
Western Province first innings 225/5 decl. (Kyle Verreynne 55*, Murray Commins 43, Aaqil Ebrahim 41; Elnu Potgieter 2/19);
Mpumalanga first innings 169/8 (Sinegugu Maseko 41, Siyabonga Mtsweni 37; Junaid Dawood 3/31, Michael Cohen 2/11).
Match Drawn.
Eastern Province first innings 139 (Liam Lindsay 64; Dean Foxcroft 5/24, Ruan de Swardt 3/22);
Northerns first innings 136/6 (Ruan de Swardt 33*, Willie Ludick 30; Lutho Sipamla 2/19).
Match Drawn.
Boland first innings decl. 218/8 (Pieter Pretorius 42, Hannes Venter 36; Todd Walker 3/38, Nevada Jacobs 3/46);
South Western Districts first innings 105 (Jean du Plessis 27; Luke Philander 5/39, Byron Fortuin 3/6);
Boland second innings decl. 24/1 (Slabber la Grange 10);
South Western Districts second innings 63/2 (Richard Papenfus 44*).
Boland won on first innings.
KwaZulu-Natal Inland first innings 181/8 decl. (Jiveshen Pillay 62, Gavin Morris 60; Tyron Koen 5/21);
KwaZulu-Natal first innings 90 (Jerome Bossr 42; Jean de Wet 5/5, Aashiq Ramdin 2/9).
KwaZulu-Natal Inland won on first innings.
Border first innings 107 (Mcedisi Malika 29, Axola Ngwana 23*; Tshepo Seroalo 4/22, Ruan Minnaar 3/21);
North West first innings 221/4 decl. (Ruan Haasbroek 101*, Vian Maritz 47);
Border second innings 43/1 (Mcedisi Malika 31; Hlompho Modimokoane 1/1).
North West won on first innings.
Northern Cape first innings 134 (Roché Rossouw 36, Marko de Kock 30; Christmas Mpenyane 4/14);
Easterns first innings 161/3 decl. (Kabelo Sekhukhune 50*, CJ van der Walt 34; Percy Seane 2/23); Northern Cape second innings 21/2 (CJ van der Walt 2/4).
Easterns won on first innings.
Namibia 177/9 (Francois Rautenbach 48, Chrischen Olivier34; Sahil Patel 4/27, Don Radebe 3/42);
Limpopo 114 (Rassie Pretorius 35; Nikolaas Davin 5/3, SJ Loftie-Eaton 3/14).
Namibia won by 63 runs.
