Peter, Ruan star as Rollers win again
- Admin
- Feb 24
- 2 min read
The West Coast Rollers headed to the Gary Kirsten Oval on Sunday to face the Black Batts, hoping to maintain a winning run which looked like a pipedream at the start of the season.
Unsure whether we could actually get a team together to compete, a combination of old heads and young blood have made it a campaign to remember so far, and that continued this weekend with a 85-run victory.
Much of that has been down to some solid batting partnerships up-front, and that again proved the case as Peter Muller and Ryan Cooper put on a 100-run stand for the third wicket after Jarryd van Wyk (12) and Rohan van der Mescht (13) had got us off to a rollicking start.
Ryan, dropped third ball (sorry Paul), played the anchor role while Peter finally found some form with the bat after a lean run. An early cover drive looked a good sign, and so it proved as he smashed four towering sixes in a score of 61 off just 47 balls.
The bowler was the wily Graeme Cann, whose slow off-spin proved too good for the Rollers' middle-order. He picked up the wickets of Ryan (53), Jacques Labuschagne (3) and Johan Taljard (4) in quick succession, at one stage sporting figures of 4/9 off four overs before Michael van Dewenter got stuck in.
Not one to bother to with running, Big Mike struck four boundaries and two sixes in an unbeaten 38 off 28 balls which gave us all the momentum going into the second half of the game, setting a decent target of 227 (although, worryingly, one of the Black Batts told us at the halfway mark that it was just about ‘par’).
Turns out our captain, Tom Stapylton-Smith, had other ideas. Fresh off a third successive duck (first-baller, no less), he bowled an immaculate opening spell of 5-1-11-2, picking up the wickets of Ross and Palfers.
Debutant Johan (1/25) ended a threatening partnership when he had Paul caught at slip, before Jarryd (2/35) got the big wicket of our old nemesis Bruce Sharpe (4) with a - sharpe - caught and bowled chance.
Chris van der Merwe (1/24) was bending it like Beckham and bowled Grant for a brisk 16, but with Callum Cann still at the crease, we knew the Fat Lady was only just warming up the pipes. Enter Ruan de Jongh, who had Callum well caught on the fence by Jacques, and then wrapped up the tail to finish with his best ever figures of 3/21.
So six wins on the trot, and a fantastic post-match session enjoyed with the Black Batts on the balcony where ice-cold beers and top-notch boeries were had. A great game played in great spirit and one that will hopefully continue for years to come.
SIDENOTE: Ross pointed out over a beer that the Black Batts had an average age of 50, while the Rollers’ touched on 38. Given the handicap system of 5 runs per year, that pushes the Batts’ total up from 141 to 201, so a tight 25-run win for the Rollers ... 🙂
(pic credit: Steve Palframan)