Botha leads Noordheuwel to historic victory despite Pretorius’ double-century

Noordheuwel‘s Corné Botha, with a sensational all-round performance, sealed an emphatic and historic victory for the Norries over the mighty St Stithians College on Saturday.

He enjoyed a spectacular day with both bat and ball to lead his side to a convincing 54-run win, scoring a magnificent 136 from only 95 deliveries, which included a whopping 10 sixes and seven fours, before following that up with a superb five-for.

In Lhuan-dré Pretorius, Saints had a player to counteract Botha’s brilliant all-round contribution. He demonstrated why he earned an SA20 contract at just 17, with a magnificent, even bigger, innings of 200 off only 125 balls.

Pretorius powered the ball to all parts of the ground, smashing 20 fours and an astounding 12 sixes, which meant an incredible 152 of his runs, or 76%, came from boundaries.

He was also the best of the Saints’ bowlers, snapping up 4/34 from 5.1 overs, and received good backing from Cayden Sunker and Joshua Meyer, who chipped in with two wickets apiece.

Botha, meanwhile, followed up his cracking century with a match-winning return of 5/33 from 9.3 overs.

At the crease, he received good support from Dian Taljaard, who struck a wonderful 65 from just 41 deliveries, while Marius Penning (41, 66b) and Ethan Smith (34, 19b) also made telling contributions to help the Norries to a mammoth 343/10.

Unfortunately for Saints’ Pretorius, he wasn’t afforded similar backing when he was out in the middle. His 200 was masterful, but the next best St Stithians’ score was 21 from Joshua Meyer

Following the star left-hander’s dismissal, the Johannesburg school suffered a batting collapse, resulting in Norries bowling them out for 289 in the 46th over to claim a convincing victory.

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Summarised scorecard

Noordheuwel 343/10 (Corné Botha 136, Dian Taljaard 65, Marius Penning 41, Ethan Smith 34: Lhuan-dre Pretoius 4/34, Cayden Sunker 2/55, Joshua Meyer 2/49); St Stithians 289/10 (Pretorius 200, Joshua Meyer 21; Corné Botha 5/33, JJ Bason 2/46, Corne Olivier 2/50). Noordheuwel won by 55 runs.