UCT Cricket Club seem to have found their feet in the Western Province Cricket Association’s Premier League one-day campaign following three consecutive victories against Langa, Cape Town CC and Brackenfell.
The students came off an eight-wicket win against Langa a fortnight ago, which boosted their momentum ahead of the doubleheader victory over Cape Town CC and Brackenfell CC at the weekend.
Both their bowlers and batsman have been instrumental in attack, in particular their first change bowler, Craig Meier, who received 15 wickets in the last three games, including a 6/5 in the Langa game.
Their opening batsman and captain, Taariq Chiektey and middle-order batsman, Joshua Coetzee, both scored half-centuries at the weekend.
On Saturday, UCT played to a one-wicket win against Cape Town at home. The visitors won the toss and elected to bat first, posting a total of 120 runs, all-out, in 40 overs.
UCT’s Matthew Benning opened the bowling with Joshua Manley. Benning received 2/13 runs and three maidens in eight overs. Manley bagged 3/14 runs and a maiden in eight overs.
Meier took the match ball after he bowled in fourth spot and recorded 5/27 runs and four maidens in nine overs.
Their batsmen were tested, heavily by Cape Town CC, as the game went down to the wire. Tailender, Matthew Rudston scored an important 21 runs, not-out, to help the students win by one-wicket in 39.4 overs.
Captain Chiektey said the results have given them a chance to stay up in the Premier League.
“It’s been a difficult season for us. We didn’t start too well, but we’ve managed to pull it back and play some good cricket these past few weeks.
“I feel we’ve been very unlucky with some results, that’s why it was really nice to get two positive results this past weekend,” he said.
On Sunday, UCT played to an 87-run victory against Brackenfell at home. They won the toss and confidently chose to bat first, posting a total of 247/9 after 50 overs.
Chiektey scored an aggressive 75 runs off 77 balls, including 11 boundaries.
Coetzee scored an undefeated 59 runs off 61 balls, and Meier scored 36 runs before he was caught by Jackie Strauss at the bowling of Jade Adams.
UCT were good with the bat, and they were as equally impressive with the ball. Meier received 4/29 runs and two maidens in his 10-over spell.
UCT limited Brackenfell to 160 runs, all-out, in 44.1 overs to win by 87 runs. The students are in the 10th spot with 30 points in the 12-team league.