{"id":87887,"date":"2025-12-16T20:56:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T18:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=87887"},"modified":"2025-12-16T20:56:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T18:56:31","slug":"cooke-and-james-steer-wp-to-nine-wicket-victory-over-free-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=87887","title":{"rendered":"Cooke and James steer WP to nine-wicket victory over Free State"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Xavier Coetzee (103) of Easterns recorded the first century during this year’s Khaya Majola Week in Bloemfontein. Photo: Charl\u00e9 Lombard\/CSA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BLOEMFONTEIN \u2013 No fewer than five centuries were recorded on the opening day of the Khaya Majola Cricket Week<\/strong>, which got off to a spectacular start in Bloemfontein.<\/p>\n

Andrew Sobiech<\/strong> (Free State), Daniel Cooke<\/strong> (Western Province), Francois Prins<\/strong> (Boland), Daniel du Plessis<\/strong> (Garden Route Badgers) and Xavier Coetzee<\/strong> (Easterns) all began the tournament in the best possible fashion with hundreds on day one.<\/p>\n

Western Province<\/strong> cruised to a convincing nine-wicket victory over the hosts, Free State<\/strong>, thanks to an unbeaten 151-run partnership for the second wicket between Daniel Cooke (104*) and Paul James<\/strong> (62*). Cooke faced just 83 deliveries, striking nine fours and two sixes in a dominant knock.<\/p>\n

For Free State, Andrew Sobiech (103) anchored the innings with a well-compiled century.<\/p>\n

Boland<\/strong>‘s Francois Prins (121) guided his side to a solid 231\/8 in their 50 overs. The Titans<\/strong> were on 187\/5 when play was halted due to lightning. After the application of the Duckworth-Lewis method, the Titans were awarded a 27-run victory.<\/p>\n

The highest individual score of the day belonged to Daniel du Plessis, who struck a superb 132 for the Garden Route Badgers<\/strong>. He shared a 121-run opening partnership with Igcobe Kitshini<\/strong> (50) against Mpumalanga<\/strong>, helping the Southern Cape side to 282\/6 in their allotted overs. Mpumalanga’s Eduan Strydom<\/strong> (4\/60) was the standout with the ball.<\/p>\n

The Garden Route Badgers eventually claimed an 88-run victory via the DLS method.<\/p>\n

The first century of the tournament was recorded by Xavier Coetzee (103) of the Eastern Storm<\/strong>, as his side powered to a massive 232-run win over Northern Cape<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) Invitational XI<\/strong>‘s Corbin Tidbury<\/strong> (5\/18) was in devastating form in his team’s nine-wicket victory over Limpopo<\/strong>. Tidbury captained Eastern Province at last week’s CSA u16 Week, where he walked away with the awards for Bowler of the Tournament and All-Rounder of the Tournament.<\/p>\n

Gauteng’s Jason Rowles<\/strong> (51), supported by Troy Gordon<\/strong> (22), helped his side withstand a strong challenge from Eastern Province. Gauteng eventually emerged victorious by just five runs under the DLS system.<\/p>\n

For the losing side, Randy Syce<\/strong> (82) and William Beamish<\/strong> (50) stood out with the bat.<\/p>\n

Summarised Scorecards:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eastern Province\u00a0254\/6\u00a0<\/span><\/b>(Randy Syce 82,\u00a0William Beamish 50, Rhys Wiblin 45, Extras 43;\u00a0Wade McQuinn 3\/36);\u00a0<\/span>Central Gauteng Lions\u00a0175\/5<\/span><\/b>\u00a0(Jason Rowles 51, Wade McQuinn\u00a031,\u00a0Troy Gordon 22; Dawid Vermaak 2\/24).\u00a0<\/span>Central Gauteng Lions won by five runs (D\/L-method)<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Free State\u00a0199<\/span><\/b>\u00a0(Andrew Sobiech\u00a0103, Aiden Dodd 28; Daniel Bosman 3\/57, Michael\u00a0Kruiskamp\u00a02\/19);\u00a0<\/span>Western Province\u00a0200\/1<\/span><\/b>\u00a0(Daniel Cooke 104*, Paul James 62*; Andrew Sobiech 1\/32).\u00a0<\/span>Western Province won by nine wickets<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tuskers\u00a0234\/8<\/span><\/b> (Thandolwethu Zama 79, Samuel Hughes 28, Daniel Nadasan 27, Sphamandla Dzanibe 26; Bayanda Majola 3\/43, Tristan Delvin 2\/40);\u00a0<\/span>Dolphins\u00a0235\/3<\/span><\/b>\u00a0(Ismaeel Omar 75*, Bandile Mbatha 60, Josh\u00a0van\u00a0Biljon 59, Extras 20;\u00a0Ethan Muir 2\/41).\u00a0<\/span>Dolphins won by seven wickets<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Boland\u00a0231\/8\u00a0<\/span><\/b>(Francois Prins 121,\u00a0Gideon du Toit 29, Liam Basson 21;\u00a0Neoentle\u00a0Makwela 3\/53,\u00a0Keamogetswe\u00a0Semenya 2\/43);\u00a0Titans\u00a0187\/5 (Vihan Pretorius 38, Lesedi Mabena 34*, Mohammad Rasool 30*, Timothy Gordon 30, Rico van der Walt 25,\u00a0Extras 20).\u00a0<\/span>Titans won by 27 runs (D\/L-method)<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Garden Route Badgers\u00a0282\/6<\/span><\/b>\u00a0(Daniel du\u00a0Plessis\u00a0132,\u00a0Igcobe\u00a0Kitshini\u00a050,\u00a0Extras 34,\u00a0Simgunzi\u00a0Blou 25; Eduan Strydom 4\/60, Zeeshan Ebrahim 2\/48);\u00a0<\/span>Mpumalanga\u00a0166\/8 (<\/span><\/b>Mfundo Mthimunye 49, Janco\u00a0Breyl\u00a034,\u00a0Nhlakanipo\u00a0Mosehlane\u00a022;\u00a0Enathi\u00a0Kitshini\u00a03\/20,\u00a0Simgunzi\u00a0Blou 2\/18,\u00a0Liviwe\u00a0Bawulie\u00a02\/30<\/span>). Garden Route Badgers won by 88 runs (D\/L-method)<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Eastern Cape\u00a0Iinyathi\u00a0175\u00a0<\/span><\/b>(Juan Nel 68, Awonke\u00a0Mgini\u00a045; Prince\u00a0Marumagae\u00a03\/17,\u00a0Jahndre\u00a0Coetzee 3\/22);\u00a0<\/span>North West\u00a0176\/5<\/span><\/b>\u00a0(Olebogeng\u00a0Scott 55,\u00a0Christivan\u00a0Coetzer 27, Louis van Wyk 23, Themba\u00a0Sontjane\u00a022;\u00a0AJ\u00a0Durrheim\u00a02\/11. Awonke\u00a0Mgini\u00a02\/57).\u00a0<\/span>North West\u00a0won by five wickets<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Easterns\u00a0313\/6\u00a0<\/span><\/b>(Xavier Coetzee 103, Clayton Horlick 80,\u00a0Nkosibonile Sibisi 50, Stephan Vermaak 35, Extras 23);\u00a0<\/span>Northern Cape\u00a081\u00a0<\/span><\/b>(Nathan Baird 19; Abdullah\u00a0Tadwala\u00a04\/13, Kristian du Plessis 2\/6,\u00a0Paul Matlala 2\/21).\u00a0<\/span>Easterns\u00a0won by 232 runs<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Limpopo 84\u00a0<\/span><\/b>(Jannes van Zyl 24; Corbin\u00a0Tidbury\u00a05\/18, Munib Ayob 2\/15);\u00a0<\/span>CSA Invitational 86\/1<\/span><\/b>\u00a0(Nkosana Sibiya 26*, JP Botha 25*).\u00a0<\/span>CSA Invitational won by nine wickets<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BLOEMFONTEIN \u2013 No fewer than five centuries were recorded on the opening day of the Khaya Majola Cricket Week, which got off to a spectacular start in Bloemfontein. Andrew Sobiech (Free State), Daniel Cooke (Western Province), Francois Prins (Boland), Daniel du Plessis (Garden Route Badgers) and Xavier Coetzee (Easterns) all began the tournament in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87887","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\/87887","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/87892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}