This past weekend, Union’s 1st XI faced Stirling High School in a declaration match played over two days.
The match, which commenced on Friday afternoon, 31 January, and concluded on Saturday, 1 February, saw Stirling winning the toss and electing to bat first at the start of play.
Union managed to bowl 43 overs in the allotted time for the day and had Stirling at 129 for 6 at the close of play.
On Saturday, Stirling resumed their innings and Union managed to strike early with two quick wickets.
Union, however, couldn’t capitalise on their efforts and allowed Stirling to reach a total of 184 all out.
Union’s best bowlers were Jaden Brotherton (3 for 21), James Pienaar (2 for 16) and Kyle-Luke du Preez (2 for 22).
Despite a solid start when Union went in to bat, they continued to lose wickets regularly and struggled to put partnerships together resulting in Union being bowled out for 132.
The Union team members who performed best with the bat during their first innings were James Pienaar (33) and James Pringle (29).
This resulted in Stirling proceeding with their second innings with a 52-run lead.
With Union needing to take only 5 wickets to restrict Stirling from gaining a substantial lead, they had the perfect start taking a wicket with the very first ball.
Union proceeded to bowl well and had Stirling at 19 for 2 in their second innings.
Unfortunately, the Union team was unable to sustain the needed pressure and Stirling managed to score 120 for 3, declaring with a 172-run lead.
Union needed to, therefore, score 173 runs to win the match with only 5 wickets in hand, however, Stirling declared late in the day leaving Union only 40 minutes to bat with them trying to take the 5 wickets for victory.
In the end, Union managed to bat out the time losing only one wicket for 30 runs.
Union’s best batsmen were James Pienaar (19 not out) and Jaden Brotherton (11 not out).
The match ended in a draw.
• Congratulations to Jaden Brotherton and Bowen Langmead on being awarded their 50th test caps for Union’s 1st XI before the match against Stirling.