The opening game of the 2017 season was our regular fixture against Villiersdorp.
Always a competitive side and with last seasons stats against them being one win and one loss the Groot Drakies were psyched to get out of the blocks.
Villiersdorp’s skipper Hennie De Wet was familiar with our tradition of fielding first and had no complaints upon inspecting Vitalis’s magnificently prepared pitch. We opened with the blistering pace of Van Zyl and Joubert Kotze and some attacking field placing. Fielding and bowling was impressively tight, Van Zyl getting 3/28 in his full spell of 7 overs and Craig McNaught having to be taken off early with his embarrassingly good form getting 3 wickets for 2 runs in just 3 overs!
With wickets falling regularly we used the opportunity to experiment with some other bowlers and both Marco and newbie Andri bowling beautifully for 1/3 after 1 over and 2/2 after 2 respectively.
Villiersdorp where back in the cub house for 59 runs. Groot Drak passed their score losing just 4 wickets and the afternoon was concluded fairly early, so the skippers convened and it was decided to play a T/10 quick format. Each captain selected a player in turn, this was a huge success, great fun and an excellent indictment of the spirit of friendly cricket playing two mixed teams selected from the two clubs.
Fines, needless to say, were entertaining and well spirited as both teams, spectators and family all sat in a large circle reminiscing over the day and putting a few cold ones past parched lips!
MATCH REPORT FROM JONO BOULTON
