{"id":90753,"date":"2026-02-19T20:41:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T18:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=90753"},"modified":"2026-02-19T20:41:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T18:41:20","slug":"st-johns-st-davids-and-michaelhouse-hit-the-ground-running-at-iscf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=90753","title":{"rendered":"St John&#8217;s, St David&#8217;s and Michaelhouse hit the ground running at ISCF"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_90754\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-90754\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-90754\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Nkosana-Sibiya1-400x267.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-90754\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nkosana Sibya led from the front, scoring an unbeaten century, to steer St John&#8217;s College to victory. Photo: Supplied.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The <strong>St John&#8217;s College (Johannesburg<\/strong>) 1st XI got their <strong>Independent Schools Cricket Festival<\/strong> <strong>(ISCF)<\/strong> campaign off to a winning start by defeating <strong>Kearsney College<\/strong> on Thursday in Pretoria.<\/p>\n<p>They were joined in the win column by <strong>St David&#8217;s Marist Inanda<\/strong>, who beat Bloemfontein&#8217;s St Andrew&#8217;s School, and <strong>Michaelhouse<\/strong>, who outplayed <strong>Woodridge College<\/strong> on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nkosana Sibiya<\/strong>, the St John\u2019s captain, led from the front with an unbeaten century to power them to a comfortable win over Kearsney at<strong> St Alban&#8217;s College<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The skipper, who lost the toss and was asked to field first, used his bowlers well, and they limited Kearsney to 210\/8 from their 50 overs. <strong><em>The Blues<\/em><\/strong> needed only 36.2 overs to reach 213\/3 in reply and claim a seven-wicket victory.<\/p>\n<p>Sibiya&#8217;s unbeaten 106 from 102 balls featured 14 fours and three sixes. The opener got the Blues going with a 90-run opening stand with <strong>Luke Fry<\/strong> (39) and then added 74 runs with <strong>Herman Basson<\/strong> (38) for the second wicket. He also shared a brief 17-run third-wicket stand with <strong>Darshik Lutchman<\/strong> (5), before seeing his side over the finishing line with <strong>Joshua Hall<\/strong> (12*).<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the day, <strong>Asher Hollister<\/strong> top-scored for Kearsney with a well-played 81 from 92 balls. Unfortunately, for the Botha&#8217;s Hill boys, his effort wasn&#8217;t buttressed by a couple of other big scores, and the KwaZulu-Natal side had to settle for a middling total.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Juan de Villiers<\/strong> was the pick of the St John&#8217;s bowlers, returning 2\/43 from 10 overs, while <strong>Ethan Robinson<\/strong>, <strong>Tapiwa Chikwava<\/strong>, <strong>Jared Gilmour,<\/strong> and <strong>Bryn Gilmour<\/strong> grabbed a wicket each.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Woodridge vs Michaelhouse<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ben Heuer<\/strong> and <strong>Liam O&#8217;Dwyer<\/strong> snapped up six wickets between them to set Michaelhouse up for a dominant nine-wicket win over <strong>Woodridge College<\/strong> when the sides cross swords on the <strong>Parke de Terrace<\/strong> at <strong>Cornwall Hill College<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Woodridge, who won the toss and chose to bat first, was unable to gain a foothold in the contest. They hung around for 40 overs but were bowled out for only 113.<\/p>\n<p>Michaelhouse showed their batting might by galloping to 114\/1 in 20.5 overs, winning in almost half the number of balls that their Eastern Cape opponents faced.<\/p>\n<p>O&#8217;Dwyer was the pick of the &#8216;<em><strong>House<\/strong><\/em> bowlers, snaring 3\/27 from 10 overs, two of which were maidens. He also brought about a Woodridge collapse, picking up his three wickets in four overs. Heuer also claimed three scalps, knocking over a tidy 3\/18 in six overs.\u00a0The duo enjoyed good support from <strong>Rendani Nonge<\/strong>, who dislodged two batsmen, while<strong> Rex Wardlaw <\/strong>and <strong>Nathan Simmons<\/strong> took a wicket each.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Stefan Ferreira<\/strong> was Woodridge\u2019s shining light with 28 runs from 23 balls, while <strong>Jeandr\u00e9 Strydom<\/strong> (20) was the only other batsman to exit the teens.<\/p>\n<p>Michaelhouse had little trouble in their run chase. After losing Wardlaw in the fourth over, the KZN school cantered to victory with an unbroken 109-run second-wicket partnership between captain <strong>Graydon Leslie<\/strong> (66*) and Riley Muir (39*).<\/p>\n<p><strong>St Andrew&#8217;s School vs St David&#8217;s Marist Inanda <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sohail Seonath<\/strong> and <strong>Jonah Gruskin<\/strong> struck half-centuries to steer St David\u2019s Marist Inanda to a seven-wicket win over St Andrew&#8217;s School on the <strong>Tuks C Oval<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>St David&#8217;s won the toss, chose to bowl first, and restricted the Bloemfontein boys to 163\/9 in their 50 overs. In reply, St David&#8217;s took 35.3 overs to reach 167\/3.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jason Rowles<\/strong>, the St David&#8217;s captain, led their bowling effort with a match-defining 3\/26 in nine overs. <strong>Christopher Emslie<\/strong>, <strong>Kyle Butler<\/strong>, and <strong>Hayden Campbell<\/strong> contributed a wicket each.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Heindr\u00e9 Serfontein<\/strong>, the only St Andrew&#8217;s batsman who looked comfortable against the St David\u2019s bowling attack, scored a steady 72 from 77 balls. <strong>Reuben van Aarde<\/strong>, the second-highest scorer, faced 61 balls for his 23 runs.<\/p>\n<p>When St David&#8217;s replied, <strong>Erhard Barends<\/strong> gave St Andrew&#8217;s hope with the dismissals of <strong>Roberto Mariano<\/strong> and Jason Rowles in the second and third overs. That hope was soon squashed, however, with Sohail Seoath and Jonah Gruskin combining for a 123-run stand for the third wicket, which took the game away from <em><strong>Saints<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Seonath top-scored with 73 from 111 balls, while Gruskin finished the match unbeaten on 53 from 76 deliveries.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Summarised Scorecards<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Kearsney College 210\/8<\/strong> (Asher Hollister 81, Aaron Blackburn 25; Juan de Villiers 2\/43, Ethan Robinson 1\/18). <strong>St John&#8217;s College 213\/3<\/strong> (Nkosana Sibiya 106*, Luke Fry 39, Herman Basson 38; Michael Groom 1\/31, Matthew Rice 1\/28). <strong>St John&#8217;s won by seven wickets<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Woodridge College 113\/10<\/strong> (Stefan Ferreira 28, Jeandr\u00e9 Strydom 20; Liam O\u2019Dwyer 3\/27, Ben Heuer 3\/18). <strong>Michaelhouse 114\/1<\/strong> (Graydon Leslie 66*, Riley Muir 39*; Daniel Darlow 1\/17, Brody McKinnon 0\/22). <strong>Michaelhouse won by nine wickets<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>St Andrew&#8217;s School 163\/9<\/strong> (Heindr\u00e9 Serfontein 72, Reuben van Aarde 23; Jason Rowles 3\/26, Hayden Campbell 1\/32). <strong>St David&#8217;s Marist Inanda<\/strong> (Sohail Seonath 73, Jonah Gruskin 53*; Erhard Barends 2\/46, WJ Lindhout 1\/15). <strong>St David&#8217;s won by seven wickets<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The St John&#8217;s College (Johannesburg) 1st XI got their Independent Schools Cricket Festival (ISCF) campaign off to a winning start by defeating Kearsney College on Thursday in Pretoria. They were joined in the win column by St David&#8217;s Marist Inanda, who beat Bloemfontein&#8217;s St Andrew&#8217;s School, and Michaelhouse, who outplayed Woodridge College on Thursday. Nkosana [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":90754,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90753","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\/90753","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\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/90754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}