Cricket: St Charles College vs Maritzburg College
Saints Claim City Derby Honours
The City Derby always brings some excitement and a buzz building up to the game. On Saturday, Maritzburg College hosted Saints on Goldstones. The morning overhead conditions were conducive for bowling. Maritzburg College won the toss, and without any doubt elected to bowl first. Their opening bowlers ran in and bowled superbly well, beating the bat on numerous occasions. It wasn’t too long before they made in-roads into the Saints batting line up. Daniel Wassenaar, was the first to go, bowled by a brilliant yorker. Soon after his dismissal, the second wicket of Sam Brown fell. Saints were 21 for 2 after 9 overs.
The man on form, Jason Muirhead made his way to the wicket. He started to build the Saints innings by rotating strike and putting away the bad ball to the boundary. The 3rd wicket stand between Muirhead and Zuma saw Saints recover considerably and were 97 for 2 after 25 overs. The pair continued steadily and had a 114-run partnership before Zuma got bowled for 54 runs in the 40th over. Muirhead, fell short of his well-deserved 100 when he was bowled on 88 runs. Saints were a competitive 216 for 6 after 50 overs.
Maritzburg College began the chase with intent. The game was in the balance at afternoon tea with Maritzburg College on 97 for 2 after 25 overs. The last session was key to both sides and was to determine the winners at the end of the day. The battle continued, disciplined bowling by Saints tightened the screws. The pressure mounted, and the wickets started to fall. A brilliant spell by Tahir Khonat of 3 for 48 sealed the victory for Saints. Maritzburg College was eventually restricted to 188 all out; St Charles College winning by 28 runs.
Report: Compiled by head coach, Lucky Dladla
Basketball: St Charles College vs Maritzburg College
The game between St Charles College and Maritzburg College is one of the most hyped and anticipated games of the season as the two local powerhouses exchange blows. Going into Saturday’s fixture was even bigger considering the two teams had split their previous matches. With both teams looking for bragging rights, the tensions were high, but the clash definitely lived up to expectations.
In front of a capacity crowd, the two teams traded baskets with both coaches adjusting defenses to keep the opposition on their toes. With a mixture of man-to-man, zone and press defenses all utilized by both teams, there were regular changes in the leader board. Both teams struggled with their outside shooting and as a result relied on aggressive drives to the basket to keep the scores rolling over. Despite the efforts of both teams to extend their leads, the score remained tied up with 6 minutes left to play.
With everything to play for, it was St Charles College who blinked first with a few consecutive turnovers which led to fast break opportunities and easy scores. St Charles College, with the momentum against them were forced into a high risk, high reward defense to try pull the game back; however, College was up to the task and managed to exchange baskets for the remainder of the quarter. College is to be complimented on their play in the final quarter which was outstanding and resulted in them sealing the decider between these two fine teams. The final score was 81 – 66 in Maritzburg College’s favour.
Report: Compiled by head coach, Darren Holcomb
Photo:Saints 1st XI captain and batting maestro, Jason Muirhead, raises his bat on Goldstones.
Photo credit: Duncan Andrew
