The two leading teams in the quest for promotion to the Western Province Premier Division, Victoria and Rylands, will go head to head in the fight for the top spot on the First Division A standings.
To make matters more interesting ahead of this explosive encounter at the Rylands sports ground on Saturday, both teams won their respective league matches at the weekend with Victoria registering a bonus point 120 run win over Hottentots Holland at the Chukker Road sport complex. Rylands went on to beat Tygerberg by five wickets.
As matters stand, Victoria heads the league table with 36 points from nine games followed by Rylands on 36, so it’s all to play for.
Saadiek Davids, Victoria’s coach is, however, confidently optimistic about his side’s chances in this encounter where little separates the sides.
“We are on a run as our results show, having only lost one match thus far. It has been a tremendous team effort led by our captain Marco Wyngaard. We are gelling as a team and there is lots of energy around to make this season memorable. We were relegated to the B Division two seasons ago and last year we won promotion to the First Division this season and it would seem we are heading to take our rightful place amongst the top teams in the province. The players are putting in the hard work and they are being rewarded,” said Davids.
Playing at home ,Victoria amassed 242 runs in 49.5 overs with Wyngaard top scoring with 55 off 38 deliveries with Warrick Rhoda producing a patient innings of 46 runs off 76 balls.
But it was the homeside’s bowlers who went on the rampage to skittle the visitors out for 122 in 36.4 overs.
Aqeel Abbas (1/3), Warren Ekstraal (3/18) in only six overs and Jordan Fourie taking 2/9 in only 1.4 overs while all-rounder Juan Collison took 2/39 in 10 overs.
Meanwhile, in the Premier Division, Bellville continued to set the pace and notched up ninth win in when they beat Milnerton by two wickets.
But it was the derby between home side Rondebosch and the Western Province Cricket Club which stole much of the weekend’s attention.
The visitors won the match by two wickets after chasing down Rondebosch 180/9 in 32.3 overs.
Derek Mitchell (71) and Nic Barlow (41) steered the team to victory with an unbeaten partnership of 80 runs.
Playing at home Ottoman recorded a two wicket win over Cape Town with bowling out the visitors for 98 in 27.2 overs. Paceman Imraan Philander took 4/15 in six overs while teammate Mogamad Taahir Fredericks was equally impressive by taking 4/27 in 5.2 overs.
Harlan Greig (97) and Josh Breed (77) led the way for Claremont’s impressive 74 run victory over Brackenfell with outstanding batting performances. Their performances helped the visitors to reach 285 while they bowled out the home side for 211 in 46 overs. Breed was again impressive by taking 3/57 while left arm spinner Cian Robertson took 3/27.
