{"id":60404,"date":"2024-11-01T15:38:13","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T13:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=60404"},"modified":"2024-11-01T15:38:13","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T13:38:13","slug":"fain-noordvaal-semi-final-a-historic-clash-for-hoerskool-middelburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=60404","title":{"rendered":"Fain-Noordvaal semi-final a historic clash for Ho\u00ebrskool Middelburg"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_60412\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-60412\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-60412 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Gavin-Genis-en-Eduan-Strydom-400x267.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-60412\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gavin Genis and Eduan Strydom batting together. Photo: Nadia Kruger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Saturday, 2 November, will be a special day for <strong>Ho\u00ebrskool Middelburg<\/strong>&#8216;s 1st XI, regardless of the result of their <strong>Fain Noordvaal<\/strong> semi-final.<\/p>\n<p>Follow all the action live on <strong>SuperSport Schools<\/strong> &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/supersportschools\"><strong>(www.supersportschools.com)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Middies face the tournament favourites, <strong>Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof<\/strong>, in their first-ever trip to the final four.<\/p>\n<p>Optimism about the Middies&#8217; cricket programme is high, with some of the school&#8217;s top performers still having a number of years in the 1st XI ahead of them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gavin Genis<\/strong> has been his side&#8217;s best player throughout the year, even though he is in Grade 10. In the seven 50-over matches in which he has batted, the young all-rounder has scored a total of 456 runs at an impressive average of 76, hitting two centuries and three half-centuries.<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s also stamped his authority with the ball, snapping up 22 wickets at an economy rate of 4.75. He&#8217;s bagged successive five-wicket hauls in his most recent outings. If Middies are to pull off a shock and upset Waterkloof, who boast a powerful batting lineup, the off-spinner will have to perform well with the ball.<\/p>\n<p>Alongside Genis, in the bowling department, a lot will fall on the shoulders of <strong>Eduan Strydom<\/strong>. He&#8217;s developed a useful habit of snapping up wickets at just the right time. His stats also speak for themselves: he&#8217;s taken 25 wickets at just 3.9 runs per over.<\/p>\n<p>Playing away from home is never as comfortable as playing at home, and the Klofies will be challenged by Ho\u00ebrskool Middelburg&#8217;s lower and slower wicket. Waterkloof&#8217;s batsmen have, however, proved their adaptability, apart from in one game against a high-class spin bowling attack from <strong>Grey College<\/strong> in the <strong>Westvaal North-South T20<\/strong> tournament.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, they welcomed back from injury their best player of spin, captain <strong>Beukes van den Berg<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Divan Behrens<\/strong> will be oozing confidence after his fantastic 173 not out against Merensky Landbou Akademie last time out. He&#8217;s put together an outstanding 2024, tallying over 1 500 runs.<\/p>\n<p>Left-arm spinner <strong>Marcus Bakker<\/strong> will, meanwhile, look forward to the assistance he will get from a slower wicket, which might also suit, Klofies&#8217; unsung hero <strong>Ruan Ferreira<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Ferreira&#8217;s economical right-arm seam bowling has played an integral part in Waterkloof making early inroads into their opposition&#8217;s batting. His consistency and accuracy might just be the right combination for the wicket in Middelburg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday, 2 November, will be a special day for Ho\u00ebrskool Middelburg&#8216;s 1st XI, regardless of the result of their Fain Noordvaal semi-final. Follow all the action live on SuperSport Schools &#8211; (www.supersportschools.com) The Middies face the tournament favourites, Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof, in their first-ever trip to the final four. Optimism about the Middies&#8217; cricket programme is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":60414,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60404","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\/60404","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}