{"id":88698,"date":"2026-01-18T14:46:44","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T12:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=88698"},"modified":"2026-01-18T14:46:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T12:46:44","slug":"saints-goes-back-to-back-as-central-region-schools-sa20-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=88698","title":{"rendered":"Saints goes back-to-back as Central Region Schools SA20 champions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For a second year in succession, Bloemfontein’s St Andrew’s School will represent the Central Region at the National Final of the Switch Schools SA20. Photo; St Andrew’s School on Instagram<\/strong><\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another Switch Schools SA20<\/strong> final, another FG Botha<\/strong> half-century!<\/p>\n

Relive all the\u00a0Switch Schools SA20\u00a0action on\u00a0SuperSport Schools<\/strong> – (www.superpsortschools.com)<\/strong><\/p>\n

St Andrew’s School<\/strong>, from Bloemfontein<\/strong>, was crowned the back-to-back Central Region champion of Phase Two of the Switch Schools SA20<\/strong> competition on Sunday morning after they successfully defended their 2025 title with a comfortable 37-run victory over Ho\u00ebrskool Rustenburg<\/strong> in the final at the JB Marks Oval<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

As he did in last year’s win in the final over Grey College<\/strong>, Botha<\/strong> raised his bat on the grand stage. He anchored the Saints<\/em><\/strong>‘ innings with an attacking and unbeaten 57 from just 30 deliveries, striking six fours and two sixes.<\/p>\n

A vital 56-run partnership with Grov\u00e9 du Preez<\/strong> (24) towards the end of their innings proved decisive and boosted the Bloemfontein outfit to a handy 144\/4 from their 20 overs. Jonathan Hickley<\/strong>, meanwhile, weighed in with a valuable 26 at the top of the order.<\/p>\n

The Rusties<\/em><\/strong>‘ reply followed a similar pattern to their opening encounter against Saints on Friday, as they, once more, struggled to break free against the champions’ tight and disciplined bowling. Callie Fryer<\/strong>, however, underlined his status as one of the country’s most promising young all-rounders, producing his second half-century of the weekend with a resolute unbeaten 53, which accounted for nearly half of his side’s total.<\/p>\n

However, the rest of the batting line-up struggled against the leg-spin of Nikhil Sukraj<\/strong> and the new-ball threat of Erhard Barends<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Sukraj<\/strong> weaved a web around the Rustenburg batsmen, tying them up while snaring 2\/14 from his four overs, which left him with 10 wickets at the end of the Phase Two tournament. Barends<\/strong> claimed two wickets of his own and conceded just 20 runs.<\/p>\n

In the end, Ho\u00ebrskool Rustenburg was restricted to 107\/5 from their 20 overs, which left them as the runners-up after a second loss to the only side that beat them over the three days in Potchefstroom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n

Summarised scorecard\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

St Andrew’s School 144\/4\u00a0<\/strong>(FG Botha 57*, Jonathan Hickley 26, Grov\u00e9 du Preez 24; Thian Labuschagne 1\/14); Ho\u00ebrskool Rustenburg 107\/5\u00a0<\/strong>(Callie Fryer 54*, Tristan van der Linde 22; Nikhil Sukraj 2\/14, Erhard Barends 2\/20).\u00a0St Andrew’s School won by 37 runs.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another Switch Schools SA20 final, another FG Botha half-century! Relive all the\u00a0Switch Schools SA20\u00a0action on\u00a0SuperSport Schools – (www.superpsortschools.com) St Andrew’s School, from Bloemfontein, was crowned the back-to-back Central Region champion of Phase Two of the Switch Schools SA20 competition on Sunday morning after they successfully defended their 2025 title with a comfortable 37-run victory over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":88725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88698","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\/88698","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=88698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/88725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}