Playoff wins for Nkowankowa and Chatsworth ahead of Saints

Saints Christian School from Potchefstroom will face Queens High School from Johannesburg in the girls’ Final of Switch Schools SA20 Volume 2 at Tuks Oval (14:00 start, live on SuperSport Channel 216 and SuperSport Schools App). They faced each other in the opening match of the Final Showdown with Queens coming out on top by one wicket. Saints, meanwhile, lost against Steyn City School in last year’s final thanks to a magnificent century by Karabo Meso (117*).

Both sides had to wait for the last scheduled group match between HTS Drostdy and Nomandi Junior Secondary School to know their fate. That match, however, could not take place due to the inclement weather in Pretoria this week. HTS Drostdy was especially unlucky as all three of their group stage matches were called off without a ball being bowled. They did however get a chance in the playoff match for third and fourth place.

Nkowankowa from Tzaneen defeated them be seven wickets thanks to a brilliant all-round performance by Respect Mabasa. She first picked up three wickets at the cost of a solitary run in two overs, before also contributing 21 runs with the bat. Tshepiso Motswi (4/22) was however the pick of Nkowankowa’s bowling attack. They also received some excellent assistance from Ivy Manyike (2/14). The team from Worcester started off well with Daneli Boshoff (30) and Mia-Lize van der Vyver (18) sharing an opening partnership of 51 runs before Van der Vyver lost her wicket in the 12th over.

In the other playoff match for positions five and six, Chatsworth managed to defeat Nomandi by a single run after the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method was applied. Shreeya Subbiah picked up four wickets at the cost of a mere 13 runs being the star for Chatsworth.