St Charles College sports news- Saints vs Hilton
The boys in Blue & Gold have been building momentum and were looking forward to taking on Hilton College in a full block fixture last week. The 1st XI cricket and 1st team basketball games are reported on respectively by head coaches Lucky Dladla and Darren Holcomb:
1st XI Cricket
St Charles College hosted Hilton College on the manicured main oval. Saints lost the toss and were asked to field first. The first hour of the match showcased a good battle between bat and ball. The Saint’s opening pair lacked discipline and gave away boundary balls to the batsman every over.
The first wicket partnership from the visitors favoured their decision to bat first, they were scoring comfortably at a steady rate of more than 5 runs to the overs. Saints’ bowlers stayed in the hunt and got breakthroughs in succession. The day belonged to the Blue & Gold spinners as they demolished the visitor’s batting line-up. Marcel Wellmann and Cian Fortmann both had a decent day with a ball. Wellmann’s, bowling figures of 4 for 25 was well supported by Cian Fortmann’s bowling figures of 3 for 21 in his 10 overs, giving St Charles momentum to restrict Hilton College to 148 all out.
Saints came out to bat and only needed to score at a minimum of 3 runs per over. The visitors struck early and had Fortmann caught behind in the first over. The captain, Marcel Wellmann did not last as well, he was caught and bowled on 12. With the two senior batsmen out, Saints middle order had to dig deep. The visitors took advantage of the situation and applied pressure from both ends. Saints lost wickets and were in some trouble until Brendon Sunguro and Thando Zama saved the day with a match-winning partnership of 47 runs. Sunguro top scored with 45 runs, while Zama was unbeaten on 31, as Saint’s reached the target with 7 wickets down. St Charles College won by 3 wickets.
1st Team Basketball
St Charles College welcomed Hilton College to the SKA in a rematch of a game that was played at the Stayers Tournament held at the commencement of the season. SCC, having lost the previous encounter, were keen to rectify the situation in front of the home crowd and for three quarters, they seemed to have the game in hand. The Saints were able to control the tempo of the game, run their offensive sets and play good defence thus restricting the second-chance opportunities for the visitors. This resulted in SCC having a commanding lead as we entered the final quarter.
With ten minutes to play, Hilton implemented a full-court press. Under pressure, the Saints’ boys committed numerous turnovers and the visitors capitalised on these, inching ever closer and ultimately taking the lead with only two minutes left in the game.
St Charles College attempted to rally down the stretch but some big baskets from Hilton ensured that they maintained the lead for an impressive win. St Charles College has a lot to learn about performing under pressure and will hopefully turn the corner when they face Kearsney at home after the mid-term break.
