{"id":91007,"date":"2026-02-22T17:31:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T15:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=91007"},"modified":"2026-02-22T17:31:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T15:31:44","slug":"statement-made-as-hilton-ends-the-iscf-as-the-only-unbeaten-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=91007","title":{"rendered":"Statement made as Hilton ends the ISCF as the only unbeaten side"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_91012\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-91012\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-91012\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Hilton-College-cricket-400x276.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"276\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-91012\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=1273234848171087&amp;set=pb.100064537518877.-2207520000&amp;type=3\">Hilton College on Facebook<\/a><\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A six\u2011wicket victory on the <strong>TC Mitchell Oval<\/strong> on Sunday morning left <strong>Hilton College<\/strong> as the only unbeaten team after four days of matches at the <strong>Independent Schools Cricket Festival<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The KwaZulu-Natal continued the dominance they displayed in a\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/munawa-bats-hilton-to-victory-malek-hits-back-to-back-centuries-for-clifton\/\">scintillating victory over St David\u2019s Marist Inanda at the La Valla Oval in Johannesburg<\/a> <\/strong>on the penultimate day of the festival.<\/p>\n<p>After three days of limited-overs cricket, the final day&#8217;s format was T20 cricket, and <a href=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/hilton-college-and-chatsworth-hub-are-kzn-switch-schools-sa20-champs\/\"><strong>Hilton, who will represent KZN at the Switch Schools SA20 Volume Two Final Showdown<\/strong><\/a>, quickly adjusted and put in a strong performance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Obakeng Motsepa<\/strong> laid the platform for a victory over the hosts, St Alban&#8217;s, taking the new ball and laying waste to the home side&#8217;s batting with his excellent 4\/19 from four overs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cameron Hargroves<\/strong> played an impressive supporting role, knocking back 2\/13 in four, as St Alban&#8217;s was restricted to only 108\/9 from their 20 overs.<\/p>\n<p>Opening batsman <strong>Reabetswe Mokoka<\/strong> was the <strong>St Alban&#8217;s <\/strong>mainstay, top\u2011scoring with 26. Hilton opener <strong>Ben Wilson<\/strong> responded with an unbeaten 39 to oversee his team&#8217;s successful run chase, which was completed within 16 overs.<\/p>\n<p>The hosts were not yet done, though. A second fixture against <span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">a wounded\u00a0<strong>St John\u2019s College<\/strong> of Harare awaited them<\/span>. It was the salve they needed, and they shrugged off the morning&#8217;s defeat to claim a convincing eight\u2011wicket victory, with Will Hewitt leading the way.<\/p>\n<p>His return of 4\/8 in only two overs was a direct punch to the gut of the Zimbabweans, and it inflicted irreparable damage on their batting effort. With <strong>Jesse Eckard<\/strong> (2\/16) and <strong>Christopher von La Chavallerie<\/strong> (2\/20) also on song, the visitors limped to a disappointing 91 all out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kyle Block<\/strong> with 27, and <strong>Reabetswe Mokoka<\/strong>, with 24, broke the backbone of the chase, which ended in the 15th over.<\/p>\n<p><strong>St David&#8217;s Marist Inanda<\/strong> also returned to winning ways in their final fixture against <strong>Prestige College<\/strong> on the <strong>La Valla Oval<\/strong>. <span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">A high\u2011class innings from\u00a0<strong>Jonah Gruskin <\/strong>illuminated the clash<\/span>. Batting at three, he completed an outstanding showing throughout the festival with 80 from only 57 balls, which included 11 fours and a solitary six.<\/p>\n<p>That left him second on the overall run scoring chart, trailing only <strong>Clifton College<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>Muhammed Malek<\/strong>, who made back-to-back hundreds. But 218 runs at an average of 72.67 was nothing to sniff at.<\/p>\n<p>Gruskin&#8217;s innings raised the tempo late in the St David&#8217;s innings and propelled the hosts to 171\/5 from their 20 overs. A victory target of 172 proved to be too much for the Hammanskraal side, who mustered only 81 all out in reply.<\/p>\n<p>Paceman <strong>Kyle Butler<\/strong> was the mainstay of the home side&#8217;s attack, snapping up an economical 3\/5. <strong>Christopher Emslie<\/strong>, with 2\/7, and <strong>Miles Pegg<\/strong>, with 2\/10, also impressed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Summarised scorecards\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sunday Morning &#8211; 21 February<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>St Alban&#8217;s College 108\/9\u00a0<\/strong>(Reabetswe Mokoka 26, Ethan Nel 23*, Kyle Block 21; Obakeng Motsepa 4\/19, Cameron Hargroves 2\/13);\u00a0<strong>Hilton College 110\/4\u00a0<\/strong>(Ben Wilson 39*; Kyle Earle 1\/7).\u00a0<strong>Hilton College won by six wickets.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>St David&#8217;s Marist 171\/5\u00a0<\/strong>(Jonah Gruskin 80, Matthew Nicholson 28, Hayden Campbell 23; Omphile Maredi 2\/23);\u00a0<strong>Prestige College 81\/10 <\/strong>(Bonani Sithole 27; Kyle Butler 3\/5, Christopher Emslie 2\/7, Miles Pegg 2\/10).\u00a0<strong>St David&#8217;s Marist won by 90 runs.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sunday afternoon &#8211; 21 February<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>St John&#8217;s College (Harare) 91\/10 <\/strong>(Riley Ettlin 26; Will Hewitt 4\/8, Jesse Eckard 2\/16, Christopher von La Chavallerie 2\/20); <strong>St Alban&#8217;s College 92\/2\u00a0<\/strong>(Kyle Block 27, Reabetswe Mokoka 24, Ethan Nel 20*; Fergus Dorward 2\/11).\u00a0<strong>St Alban&#8217;s College won by eight wickets.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A six\u2011wicket victory on the TC Mitchell Oval on Sunday morning left Hilton College as the only unbeaten team after four days of matches at the Independent Schools Cricket Festival. The KwaZulu-Natal continued the dominance they displayed in a\u00a0scintillating victory over St David\u2019s Marist Inanda at the La Valla Oval in Johannesburg on the penultimate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":91012,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91007","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\/91007","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=91007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/91012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}