• Sport

Wildcats take early lead in Franchise T20

- 2023-09-18 00:00:00

Cricket Namibia’s Richelieu T20 Franchise Championship for 2023 kicked off with a bang on Friday afternoon with the first clash between the Windhoek Jets and Namib Desert Lions at the United field in Olympia.
The action continued with battles between the Fish River Eagles and Etosha Wildcats on Saturday morning, followed by the last bout of the day where the Jets had to face the lively Wildcats.
On Friday the Jets (147/5 in 20 overs) defeated the Lions (123/8 in 20) by 24 runs, while the Wildcats (114/5 in 16) on Saturday morning chased down the Eagles’ 112 runs for 6 wickets in 20 to claim victory by five wickets.
The Wildcats (135/2 in 16.2) put up a merciless performance to beat the Jets (131/4 in 20) on Saturday afternoon to claim their second win by eight wickets.
Top five run scorers
JJ Smit of the Wildcats with 99 runs from 63 balls in two matches is the early leading batsman. His eight sixes so far are also two ahead of the next big hitter, Niko Davin.
Smit is followed by Jan Frylinck (Jets) with 90 (78 balls), Michael van Lingen (Wildcats) with 66 (52 b), Divan la Cock (Jets) with 56 (59 b) and Michau du Preez (Eagles) with 51 (47 b) in one match.
So far Smit (65 not out), Frylinck (52*), Van Lingen (59*) and Du Preez (51*) have treated spectators with excellent half-centuries.
Pace and spin bowling
Ben Shikongo (Jets) with 3 wickets for 46 runs in 8 overs with 22 dot balls is one of the leading bowlers so far.
Others include Divan la Cock (Jets) 3/36 in 6 with 17 dot balls; Bernard Scholtz (Wildcats) 2/27 in 8 (26 dot balls); Tawanda Sithole (Eagles) 2/11 in 3 (11 dot balls) and Tangeni Lungameni (Lions) 2/19 in 4 (13 dot balls).
The competition continues this week with matches on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoon between the Lions and Wildcats, Lions and Eagles as well as the Jets and Eagles respectively.
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