Friday, 31 August
UHS 1st XI (T20): UHS won by 7 wickets
On Friday the 1st XI got their season under way playing a T20 against Pearson. Union won the toss and sent Pearson in to bat. The bowlers immediately found their straps with maintaining a perfect line and length and put Pearson under pressure from the get go, striking with two quick wickets. The Union boys continued to build great pressure with the ball and had Pearson struggling at 76/5 after 17 overs. Unfortunately they were unable to capitalize on all their opportunities, which allowed Pearson to reach a total of 125 in their 20 overs. Pick of the bowlers were Matt Harpur finishing with figures of 3/22 and Brett Amsterdam 2/18 off their allotted 4 overs respectively. Union went in to bat and got off to a perfect start with a wonderful 36 run opening partnership between Brett Amsterdam and Luke Mc Naughton. Despite losing both openers in one over Matt Harpur and Cowan Swartz showed great maturity and batted with tremendous intent putting together a very well-played 56 run partnership, which then allowed Bowen Langmead to come in and play a blistering innings of 19 to take us across the line winning the game by 7 wickets. Special mention must be made of Matt Harpur who had a wonderful all round performance and finished on 50 not out with the bat.
Best bowling figures: Matt Harpur 3/22 in 4 overs; Brett Amsterdam 2/18 in 4 overs
Best batting scores: Matt Harpur 50 not out; Luke Mc Naughton 25; Bowen Langmead 19 not out
Saturday, 1 September
UHS XI (50 overs): lost by 8 wickets
On Saturday the 1st XI took on Pearson again in a 50 over match. Pearson won the toss and sent Union in to bat. Despite being full of confidence after their performance the previous day Union were unable to carry on where they left off with the bat. They were met with some wonderful accurate bowling and were never allowed to put any substantial partnerships together after the well grinded 40 run partnership between Brett Amsterdam and Matt Harpur. Union continued to lose wickets at regular intervals and could only manage a less than modest 108 all out.
Pearson went in to bat and Union immediately found their line and length striking in the very first over. They continued to bowl with great accuracy and were able to keep Pearson under pressure, however missed some chances which allowed Pearson to knuckle down and with little scoreboard pressure they were able to manage Union’s score with only two wickets down winning the match by 8 wickets.
Best batting scores: Brett Amsterdam 25; Cowan Swartz 15
Best bowling figures: Cowan Swartz 2/34 in 8 overs
Despite the loss the Union boys must be commended for the way in which they played their cricket this weekend and even when their backs were against the wall they never gave up and maintained a positive approach to the game. All in all it was a great start to the season.
2nd Team (50 overs): lost by 181 runs
Pearson batted first and scored 239 for 5 in 40 overs. Sintu Nkosinkulu took 2 wickets for 39 in 8 overs. Union replied with 58 all out. Union lost by 181 runs.
U/15A Team
Union batted first and scored 51 all out in 22 overs. Pearson replied with 52 without loss.
Union lost by 10 wickets. U/15A (50 overs): lost by 10 wickets