Dramatic victory in derby for Kingswood

KINGSWOOD triumphed in an exciting Grahamstown schools cricket derby at the weekend when they beat St Andrew's by 12 runs.

Kingswood batted first after winning the toss and were reasonably placed on 72/2, with Marco Lombard and Daine Kruger steadily compiling runs.

But they then lost wickets as St Andrew's stemmed the run rate and put the Kingswood batsmen under pressure, reducing them to 130/9. Josh Shelley and Jarod van Blerk added a valuable 31 runs for the 10th wicket before Kingswood were bowled out for 161.

The state of a pitch becomes much clearer once both sides have batted but, at 61/2 with Brendan Owen and Andrew Mills at the crease, St Andrew's looked well positioned.

The clouds then rolled in and with them came a spirited session from Kingswood as they picked up five wickets. Michael Braans was the pick of the spinners (3/24), while Van Blerk also did some damage with his left-arm swing (3/20).

St Andrew's steadied and were back in the game at 148/7, with Benjamin Dovey and Chris McCarthy at the crease.

Kingswood kept fighting and a slick bit of fielding from captain Brad Haller gave them the edge when McCarthy was run out through a direct hit.

Haller then brought himself on and had Dovey caught behind for a determined 35.

With 13 runs needed for victory, the last two St Andrew's batsmen had a mix-up which saw Ross Ferguson run out, giving Kingswood a dramatic win.