{"id":31898,"date":"2023-12-17T08:00:55","date_gmt":"2023-12-17T06:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=31898"},"modified":"2023-12-17T08:00:55","modified_gmt":"2023-12-17T06:00:55","slug":"lions-u16s-sweep-the-awards-at-2023-csa-girls-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=31898","title":{"rendered":"Lions u16s sweep the awards at 2023 CSA Girls Week"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_31923\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-31923\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-31923 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Lions-Girls-u16-Kwazi-Mdudli-400x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-31923\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lions u16 Girls | PHOTO: Kwazi Mdudli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>With a win on Saturday, the<strong> Gauteng Lions<\/strong> maintained their perfect record to be crowned the<strong> 2023 CSA u16 Girls Week<\/strong> champions after a battle fitting of a final against <strong>Easterns<\/strong> in Pietermaritzburg.<\/p>\n<p>Relive all the action on<strong> SuperSport Schools &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/supersportschools\">Register now<\/a> &#8211;<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/CSAu16GIRLSWEEK2023\">Link to the tournament<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Fay Cowling<\/strong>, as she often did during the week, played a key innings as the Lions tallied 86\/6 in their 18 available overs.<\/p>\n<p>With all but one other match being cancelled due to rain, she impressed with an unbeaten 48 in in conditions that clearly favoured the bowlers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Micaela Edwards<\/strong>, with an innings of 35, and <strong>Mieke van Voorst<\/strong>, with 20, made a valiant attempt to take their side past the required total, but <strong>Leani Swanepoel<\/strong>&#8216;s four overs put the skids on the Easterns&#8217; run chase. She sent four batters packing at crucial moments and vitally, too, conceded only 10 runs.<\/p>\n<p>After the completion of their overs, the Eastern Storm were agonisingly close to the Lions&#8217; total, finishing a mere six runs shy of their target.<\/p>\n<p>The only other contest that took place was a crucial clash between <strong>Boland<\/strong> and <strong>Eastern Province<\/strong> to decide who would earn a spot in the Platinum division in 2024.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_31924\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-31924\" style=\"width: 350px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-31924\" src=\"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Bowler-of-the-Week-CSA-u16-Girls-2023-Danika-Marais-Eastern-Province-with-umpire-Roodt-Jacobs-Photo-Kwazi-Mdudli-375x500.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"466\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-31924\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bowler of the week: Danika Marais (EP) with umpire Roodt Jacobs | PHOTO: Kwazi Mdudli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Despite <strong>Liyema Gqirana<\/strong> showing her class and taking three Boland wickets, <strong>Janel Steenkamp<\/strong> played a composed and unbeaten 35 to see her team across the line.<\/p>\n<p>Apart from the claiming the Cup, the Gauteng Lions also picked up a number of other awards. <strong>Fay Cowling<\/strong> was selected as the best all-rounder of the week, as well as the best fielder.<\/p>\n<p>Her teammate, <strong>Neo Molefe<\/strong>, who scored back-to-back centuries without losing her wicket in the opening two games, was honoured as both the cricketer and batter of the week.<\/p>\n<p>The bowler of the tournament was Eastern Province&#8217;s <strong>Danika Marais<\/strong>, who took seven wickets to help EP to a three-run victory over <strong>KZN Inland<\/strong> in a thriller on day three.<\/p>\n<p>The event was an excellent showcase of the young talent in the women&#8217;s youth cricket programme in South Africa. With the appetite for the women&#8217;s game heating up locally and worldwide, the national youth weeks provide opportunities and potential stepping stones for some within South Africa&#8217;s ever-growing ranks of young cricketers to potentially stake a claim for a future in professional sports.<\/p>\n<p>For others, it will have been a cherished and rare opportunity to play alongside and test themselves against some of the top u16 girls&#8217; cricketers in the country.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SUMMARISED SCORECARD (Day five)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Gauteng Lions 86\/6\u00a0<\/strong>(Fay Cowling 48*; Ashleigh Van Wyk 2\/28); <strong>Easterns 81\/7\u00a0<\/strong>(Micaela Edwards 34, Mieke van Voorst 20; Leani Swanepoel 4\/10). <strong>Gauteng Lions won by 5 runs.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Eastern Province 78\/5\u00a0<\/strong>(Extras 21, Tara Nel 19*; Cornelia Destroo 1\/6); <strong>Boland 79\/4\u00a0<\/strong>(Janel Steenkamp 35*; Liyema Gqirana 3\/26). <strong>Boland won by six wickets.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>AWARDS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Cup winners:\u00a0<\/strong>Gauteng Lions<br \/>\n<strong>Cricketer of the week:\u00a0<\/strong>Neo Molefe (Gauteng Lions)<br \/>\n<strong>All-rounder of the week:\u00a0<\/strong>Fay Cowling (Gauteng Lions)<br \/>\n<strong>Bowler of the week: <\/strong>Danica Marais (Eastern Province)<br \/>\n<strong>Batter of the week:\u00a0<\/strong>Neo Molefe (Gauteng Lions)<br \/>\n<strong>Fielder of the week:\u00a0<\/strong>Fay Cowling (Gauteng Lions)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With a win on Saturday, the Gauteng Lions maintained their perfect record to be crowned the 2023 CSA u16 Girls Week champions after a battle fitting of a final against Easterns in Pietermaritzburg. Relive all the action on SuperSport Schools &#8211; Register now &#8211; Link to the tournament Fay Cowling, as she often did during [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":31923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}