St Helena’s cricketers have won their first match in South Africa – competing in their first-ever international tournament. But they came unstuck in their afternoon match against Zambia.
The outcome of the second match was no surprise, against a team that has declared its ambition to win the tournament and return to its Division Two ranking. Even so, the island boys made the Zambians work for their victory.
St Helena’s “emphatic” win was the headline story in the tournament report from Benoni on the opening day of the Pepsi ICC Africa Division 3 match on Wednesday (25 April 2012).
Cameroon chose to bat first and were bowled out for 36 runs. Gary Coleman, “the chief destroyer for the islanders”, claimed five wickets for only eight runs. St Helena reached the target for victory in just 6.1 overs.
It was a different story in the afternoon at the Sahara Park Willowmoore ‘C’ Field.
St Helena won the toss and elected to field. By the time they went into bat after 18.5 overs they were chasing a score of 108 all out.
B George (3 for 23) and A Coleman (2 for 17) were the chief wicket-takers, closely matching the performance of the best of their adversaries.
In the battle for runs that followed, St Helena were bowled out for 71 – well short of victory against a side that goes into the second day unbeaten.
Read a match report by Derek Richards here.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
Cameroon v St Helena
Venue: Willowmoore Park
Result: Cameroon scored 36 runs all out in 11.2 overs
Best Bowling: St. Helena: G. Coleman 5 for 8; D. Leo 3 for 1
St. Helena scored 37 runs for the loss of 1 wicket in 6.1 overs
Best Batting: St. Helena: D. Richards 15*; G. George 14
St. Helena won by 9 wickets
St Helena v Zambia
Venue: Willow moore Park
Result: Zambia scored 108 all out
Best Batting Figures Zambia: Sarfraz Patel 24
Best Bowling Figures St. Helena: B. George 3 for 23; A. Coleman 2 for 17
St. Helena scored 71 all out in 19.5 overs
Best Batting Figures St. Helena: S. Crowie 15
Best Bowling figures Zambia: I. Mohamed 3 for 22; S. Yousuf 2 for 15
Zambia won by 37 runs
Well done lads!