{"id":63700,"date":"2025-02-01T19:02:18","date_gmt":"2025-02-01T17:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=63700"},"modified":"2025-02-01T19:02:18","modified_gmt":"2025-02-01T17:02:18","slug":"bothas-bmt-leads-st-andrews-to-four-run-win-over-waterkloof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=63700","title":{"rendered":"Botha&#8217;s BMT leads St Andrew&#8217;s to four-run win over Waterkloof"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_63712\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-63712\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-63712 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/St-Andrews-Bloem-3-400x267.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-63712\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">St Andrew&#8217;s School celebrating a wicket. Photo: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/saintsbloemfontein\">St Andrew&#8217;s School, Bloemfontein on Facebook<\/a><\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There is no doubt that <strong>St Andrew&#8217;s School<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>FG Botha<\/strong> is a man for the big occasion.<\/p>\n<p>Relive all the action on <strong>SuperSport Schools<\/strong> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/SchoolsCricket2025\"><strong>(www.supersportschools.com)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The latest evidence of that came on Saturday on <strong>Vossie&#8217;s Field,<\/strong> in Bloemfontein, after his exceptional all-round performance led <em><strong>Saints<\/strong><\/em> to a narrow four-run victory over <strong>Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof<\/strong> in their annual derby.<\/p>\n<p>With St Andrew&#8217;s batting first, Botha made the visitors from the Jacaranda City chase leather with a masterful innings.<\/p>\n<p>He entered the fray at the fall of the first wicket and settled in quickly, taking only 108 deliveries to score an entertaining 101, which included 10 fours and a six.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrew Sobiech <\/strong>played his part, too. In an 82-run partnership with Botha, he contributed 39 runs. Then, towards the end of the St Andrew&#8217;s innings, <strong>Johan Liebenberg<\/strong> delivered a crucial boost, weighing in with a match-defining 30.<\/p>\n<p>Liebenberg&#8217;s innings also steadied the Saint&#8217;s ship after the home side suffered a collapse in the middle order, which was brought on by <em><strong>Klofies&#8217; <\/strong><\/em>captain, <strong>Riley Miller<\/strong>. He was the eighth bowler used by Waterkloof but, by far, their most successful, knocking over 5\/43 from 10 overs.<\/p>\n<p>When the visitors batted, wicketkeeper\/batsman, <strong>Rico van der Walt<\/strong>, dazzled the crowd with a superb innings. He smashed eight fours and a six in a 98-ball stay, which brought him 107 runs before he fell victim to Saints&#8217; opening bowler, <strong>Cullen Kakora<\/strong> (3\/30).<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately for the visitors, FG Botha&#8217;s dream day continued. Bowling his full quota of 10 overs, he snared three wickets with his leg spin to put the skids under the Waterkloof response. Only <strong>AJ de Villiers<\/strong> (41) mustered another noteworthy contribution, but Klofies came up just short, losing their last wicket to the second ball of the final over.<\/p>\n<p>At <strong>Grey College<\/strong>, the home side snagged a massive 132-run victory over the visiting <strong>Pretoria Boys High School (PBHS)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>As he has done for most of the short 2025 season, <strong>Henru de Wet<\/strong> led the way for Grey with authority. He was his team&#8217;s mainstay with the bat, accumulating 90 runs, while <strong>Daniel Hattingh<\/strong> (69) and <strong>Juan Maree<\/strong> (43*) also took the game away from Boys High.<\/p>\n<p>Maree (3\/12) and Hattingh (2\/32) later made key contributions with the ball, sharing five wickets for only 44 runs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pieter Steyn<\/strong> scored a classy 57 for PBHS, and <strong>Louis Kruyshaar<\/strong> made 33, but the touring side needed far more from the rest of their batsman and they didn&#8217;t get it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Summarised scorecards<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>St Andrew&#8217;s School 252<\/strong> (FG Botha 101, Andrew Sobiech 39, Johan Liebenberg 30, Extras 23; Riley Miller 5\/43); <strong>Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof 248\/10<\/strong> (Rico van der Walt 107, AJ de Villiers 41, Franco Schmidt 21; Cullen Kakora 3\/30, FG Botha 3\/48, Andrew Sobiech 2\/52). <strong>St Andrew&#8217;s School won by four runs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grey College 297\/5<\/strong> (Henru de Wet 90, Daniel Hattingh 69, Juan Maree 43*, Divan Bezuidenhout 38, Jaco Prinsloo 31*; Jaydon Knott-Craig 2\/35); <strong>Pretoria Boys High School 165\/10<\/strong>\u00a0(Pieter Steyn 57, Louis Kruyshaar 33, Extras 24, Grant Spencer 21; Juan Maree 3\/12, Daniel Hattingh 2\/32). <strong>Grey College won by 132 runs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is no doubt that St Andrew&#8217;s School&#8216;s FG Botha is a man for the big occasion. Relive all the action on SuperSport Schools &#8211; (www.supersportschools.com) The latest evidence of that came on Saturday on Vossie&#8217;s Field, in Bloemfontein, after his exceptional all-round performance led Saints to a narrow four-run victory over Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":63712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63700","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\/63700","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=63700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/63712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}