Rollers thumped at Groot Drak

It’s a new year, but there were hardly new beginnings as the Rollers’ poor recent record against Groot Drak continued on Sunday.

Recent encounters have seen one home team player destroy our chances of winning, and that was once again the case as Jannes’ blistering knock helped Groot Drak to a comfortable five-wicket win.

It looked good for us at one stage though – taking first strike, the Cooper brothers saw off some top quality seam bowling to take the score for 85 before Ryan (47) hit a full-toss straight back at the bowler.

Cornell Keulder was bowled for 11 before Neville and the returning Francois Siebrits (19) put on 36 for the third wicket. But Neville’s dismissal for a brilliant 68 saw the now infamous ‘Koeberg Roll’ as we lost the next six wickets for just 22 runs.

So the hosts were set 174 for victory, and they set about it like they had a plane to catch as Jaco Swart (31) and Simon (29) hit everything in sight, all the while helped by the Cooper brothers’ poor catching.

Losing our premier fast bowler Cornell with a side-strain after two overs didn’t help, but Andrew Young bowled with some pace to keep us in the game, finishing with figures of 2/31 in his seven overs.

But any thoughts of a comeback were dashed by the 80-run partnership between and MC and Jannes – the latter finishing unbeaten on 68 and finishing in style with 4, 4, 4, 6 to further spoil Michael van Dewenter’s day.

A five-wicket defeat with 10 overs to spare in blistering heat, but a great time was had at fines afterwards and some great stories told. Thanks again to Morne and his team for a great time and their fantastic hospitality.

BATTING Neville Cooper   68 (9×4) Ryan Cooper   47 (7×4) Cornell Keulder   11 (1×6, 1×4) Francois Siebrits   19 (3×4) Claude Louw   9 (1×4) Michael van Dewenter   0 George Kamfer   0 Andrew Young   5 (1×4) Hannes Carlson   1* Ruan de Jongh   7 (1×4) Jacques Laubscher   0*

Extras: 5 TOTAL: 173/9 (35 overs)

BOWLING Cornell Keulder   2-0-10-0 Claude Louw   5-0-42-1 Andrew Young   7-0-31-2 Ryan Cooper   4-0-22-0 Hannes Carlson   4-0-22-1 Michael van Dewenter   4-0-40-1