uThungulu beat defending champs

RH CONSTRUCTION uThungulu got their Castle Premier League off to a dream start on Sunday at Addison Park, when the local lads beat defending champions Crusaders by 28 runs.

The home side won the toss and elected to pad up first and head out to the middle.

After openers Stephan Joubert and Otto Rode fell for single figures (6 each), things did not look great on the cards for the local outfit.

But thanks to Grové Venter who smashed 61 off 80 balls with a strike rate of 76.25, the team got back on track to posting a respectable score.

Venter clocked five fours and one six in his innings which boosted the confidence and belief within the team.

Simon Savides played a rock solid innings, guiding the ship with his patient 39 off 87 balls.

Contributions from Jason Redinger (22) and Neil Jordan (18) aided the team to post 213/8 in their 50 overs.

M Alexander 3/28 in 8 was the standout bowler for the Crusaders outfit with ball in hand.

Crusaders’ chase got off to a great start with the top three putting on 108 runs in 171 balls.

But thanks to spinner Stephan Joubert who ended with figures of 4/25 in 10, Crusaders fell short at the crease with the scoreboard reading 185 all out.

Otto Rode also contributed with the nut, taking 3/45 in 10.

It was great to see the openers rectifying their failure with the bat by stepping up with the ball.

RH Construction uThungulu will travel to Durban on Sunday to take on Chatsworth in their next fixture.