{"id":90217,"date":"2026-02-09T11:51:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T09:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=90217"},"modified":"2026-02-09T11:51:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T09:51:31","slug":"de-villiers-and-smit-deliver-to-book-another-finsbury-final-for-waterkloof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=90217","title":{"rendered":"De Villiers and Smit deliver to book another Finsbury final for Waterkloof"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CricketHo\u00ebrskool Waterkloof<\/strong> will have an opportunity to defend the Finsbury League<\/strong>‘s A Section title after they scored a commanding seven-wicket victory over Ho\u00ebrskool Kempton Park<\/strong> in the penultimate round of the competition in Pretoria on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Kempies<\/strong><\/em>, newcomers to the A Section this year, are still in contention for a place in the title game, which takes place on 21 February.<\/p>\n

To earn another crack at Klofies<\/strong><\/em>, Kempton Park, who have 10 log points, will need to defeat Potchefstroom Volkskool<\/strong> by a large margin and pick up a bonus point in the last round of round-robin fixtures.<\/p>\n

They will also have to hope that Die Ho\u00ebrskool Menlopark<\/strong>, who are in second place with 15 points, suffers a heavy defeat in their last round robin match, which takes place on Tuesday against Waterkloof.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Klofies responded with a strong all-round performance after an eight-wicket loss to Jeppe High School for Boys<\/a> <\/strong>a day earlier. Having won the toss, Waterkloof elected to bowl first. That decision was one of the keys to the home side’s success as they restricted the visitors to a moderate 167 all out.<\/p>\n

Vorster de Villiers<\/strong> was outstanding with the ball, sending down 10 overs, which included 44 dot balls, while also capturing 4\/33. He was well supported by opening bowler Christian Smit<\/strong>, who claimed 3\/30 and dismantled Kempton Park’s top order, including the prized wicket of Sheldon Kruger<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Kruger was again the backbone of the Kempies’ innings, top-scoring with 41, while Dian Geldenhuys<\/strong> lent good support, weighing in with 38.<\/p>\n

In reply, Waterkloof’s successful run chase was effectively set up by opener Wian du Plessis<\/strong>, who hit out from the first ball. His blistering 61 from just 42 deliveries included five fours and four sixes and gave the Klofies’ innings massive momentum.<\/p>\n

Du Plessis partnered with Juan Swart<\/strong> (31) for an 87-run partnership before Rico van der Walt<\/strong> (30*) and Franco Schmidt<\/strong> (21*), on his 18th birthday, steered Waterkloof home off the second ball of the 21st over with an unbroken 47-run stand.<\/p>\n

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

Ho\u00ebrskool Kempton Park 167\/10 <\/strong>(Sheldon Kruger 41, Dian Geldenhuys 38, Francois Marais 20; Vorster de Villiers 4\/33, Christian Smit 3\/30);\u00a0Waterkloof 172\/3\u00a0<\/strong>(Wian du Plessis 61, Juan Swart 31, Rico van der Walt 30*, Franco Schmidt 21*; Stian van Breda 1\/27).\u00a0Waterkloof won by seven wickets.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof will have an opportunity to defend the Finsbury League‘s A Section title after they scored a commanding seven-wicket victory over Ho\u00ebrskool Kempton Park in the penultimate round of the competition in Pretoria on Sunday. Kempies, newcomers to the A Section this year, are still in contention for a place in the title game, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":30003,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90217","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\/90217","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=90217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}