Paarl Cricket Club clinched a closely contested match in Boland’s Premier League competition on Saturday (4 February) when they beat the home team by 8 runs in Malmesbury. The visitors posted 211/7 in 50 overs and dismissed Malmesbury for 203 in the 49th over.
Paarl Rock players Clyde Fortuin and Hlomhla Hanabe showed their quality for Paarl, with match winning performances. Opening the batting, Hanabe was run out on 49 (4×4) after one of his best displays of the season, while Fortuin, in his first outing for Paarl this season, was instrumental with bat and ball. He needed only 27 balls for his 43 runs (2×4, 4×6), while also finishing on 2/23 in 6 overs. Fellow opener, the 18-year-old Jaywin Solomons (23, 3×4), also showed why he is seen as a sound investment for the future, with his solid innings. The ever-reliable Herschelle Poggenpoel (38 not out, 4×4) kept the innings together against Malmesbury’s captain, Sergio Rooms (10-0-31-2) and Devon Smith (10-0-25-1), but the fact that their most economical bowler, Fernando Arendse (7-3-14-0) was under-bowled, probably led to Malmesbury’s downfall. Opener Llewellyn Koopman, with 58 in 47 balls (6×4, 2×6) started like a house on fire for the home team, involved in good partnerships for the first 2 wickets.
Rooms (30, 3×4) and Krisnan Oosthuizen (30, 2×4, 1×6) made good contributions in support, but the rest of the batsmen struggled to cope with the pace of Grant Chordnum (10-2-25-1). Spinners Alfredo Adams (10-3-30-2) and Fortuin effected the rest, while Clint Brockman’s 2/17 in 3 overs at the death, was invaluable.
