Victory for Vikings in tense final

The Werda Toyota Vikings team are the new champions of the Louis Trichardt Cricket Club’s T20 league. They beat the Powafix team in a tense final on Sunday by 10 runs.

Vikings batted first, but lost an early wicket when Glen McLeod was run out with the score on 11. Kobus Barkhuizen then joined Craig Viljoen at the crease and the two of them continued where they left off in the previous match. They were in devastating form, with Kobus hitting 61 off 41 balls and Craig scoring an unbeaten 84 off 64 balls. Warno Smit (18 from only 8 balls) helped Craig to take the score to 173/3 after 20 overs.

The only two bowlers from Powafix who took wickets were Ikram Kamboli (1/22 in four overs) and Louis van Jaarsveld (1/33 in three overs).

Powafix were not intimidated by such a big score and their two opening batsmen set off at a blistering pace. Imran Batia and Amir Bux scored 65 runs off 34 balls before Amir (19 off 13 balls) lost his wicket. Imran followed him, but not before scoring 48 from 24 balls. Vikings’ Jandre Hancke took both their wickets.

Ikram Patel (13 off 12) tried to keep the momentum, but wickets started falling, mostly because of some good bowling by Craig Viljoen. Leon Furstenburg also claimed two scalps and at 107/7 the big lady on the side was warming up her voice. Ockert de Lange (25 from 15) and Mustak Patel (31 from 25) then rekindled Powafix’s hope, but the task was simply too much. Thovi Nefale claimed the last three wickets for Vikings and when the last wicket fell in the 19^th over, the score stood at 163.

For Vikings, Craig Viljoen (3/19 in 4 overs) and Thovi Nefale (3/10 in 1,5 overs) were the most successful bowlers. Jandre Hancke (2/33 in 4) and Leon Furstenburg (2/20 in 4) did the rest of the damage.

The Vikings expressed their gratitude towards the team's sponsor, Werda Toyota, for their support of the team this season. 

Date:09 June 2017

By: Anton van Zyl

Anton van Zyl has been with the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror since 1990. He graduated from the Rand Afrikaans University (now University of Johannesburg) and obtained a BA Communications degree. He is a founder member of the Association of Independent Publishers.

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