South African College High School (SACS) have won the opportunity to play in the Cobras franchise final of the 2019 Schools’ T20 Challenge.
This was after winning the Western Province Schools T20 Challenge provincial final at Rondebosch Boys’ High School, at the weekend.
This year’s provincial finals were played on Saturday February 23 and Sunday February 24.
It started off at the quarter-final stage with Wynberg Boys’ High School, Western Cape Sports School, Strandfontein Cricket Club, Bishops, Rondebosch Boys’ High School, Primrose HUB, Newlands Cricket High School and SACS playing against each other.
SACS beat Newlands Cricket High School by 8 wickets in the quarter-final, Rondebosch Boys’ High School by 5 wickets in the semi-final and Wynberg Boys’ High School by 2 wickets in the final.
The final was extremely exciting, going down to the final ball of the game, where SACS batsman Ben Levitt managed to hit 2 runs to win the game for his team.
There was little difference between the teams but there had to be a winner and SACS managed to hold their nerve and win the match.
SACS had managed to restrict Wynberg to just 114/7 in their 20 overs with Anda Dilima, Oscar Welsh and Judah Banwell taking 2 wickets each.
Brilliant half centuries by captain Daniel Smith and Kai Curran in the semi-final led the side to the final. Smith finished unbeaten on 50 with Curran making 53.
The SACS captain Daniel Smith said: “It is special to play in the Schools’ T20 Challenge where we get to test ourselves against the top teams in South Africa.
“We don’t want to look too far ahead but we would like to win our franchise finals and represent the Cobras in the national finals.”
They now have to find a way past Boland’s Paarl Gimnasium and South Western District’s Langenhoven Gimnasium to see who will represent the Cobras in the national finals.
The winner of the franchise finals will join the other five franchise 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 Friday March 15 to Sunday March 17.
The T20 Challenge winner stands to walk away with R110 000 for their school. The competition is a great platform for youngsters seeking to make their way to the professional ranks of cricket.
Proteas such as Kagiso Rabada, Aiden Makram and Quiton de Kock have played in the tournament in the past.
Additional reporting by Buntu Gotywa.
