The Sharks beat the Dolphins at Sahara Stadium Kingsmead, in the Pick n Pay T20 match in aid of charity, “and charity won big at the end of the day”.
Let me be the first to say that we were treated to a festival of cricket and fun with both team’s players doing their utmost to give time to fans and at the same time try put up a spectacle worthy of these high class sportsmen, and so they did.
Amazingly it was some of the big fellows shining with either the bat, ball or in the field. Willem Alberts took a couple of brilliant catches and bowled well and then Franco van der Merwe went on the rampage with the bat as he smashed the Dolphins bowlers to all corners of the Stadium.
Although it took the Dolphins a while to warm up, but when they did, Khaya Zondo was particularly hard on Willem Alberts, putting on 16 runs in his second over (Alberts having conceded just four in his first).
The big hitting David Miller, fending off the fierce competitiveness of Jean Deysel, took 20 runs off one late over as the Dolphins looked to post a competitive total, one six hit right out of the stadium.
The Dolphins themselves went on the rampage as they smashed 60 runs in the last four over’s allowing the Dolphins to post a handy score for The Sharks to chase. David Miller and Divan van Wyk ending the innings of the Dolphins with a partnership of 74 runs off 39 balls, leaving the score at 183/5.
After Jacques Botes and Tera Mtembu opened the batting for The Sharks but fell reasonably early and at 14 / 2 it seemed The Sharks could be in trouble as they went in search of the mammoth total.
Enter Pat Lambie and like last year he showed great pedigree to put his team onto the front foot as he and Riaan Viljoen added a 50-run partnership before Viljoen went and was followed quickly by Deysel and Alberts.
Pat Lambie at this stage was on 49 after nine overs and well on his way and reached his 50 with a four, but was out next ball, having scored 53 off 33 balls with 8 fours and a six.
Franco van der Merwe came in and from then there was only one side in it. He followed up his quality bowling with some massive batting, striking three fours early on for a strike rate of over 200. He struck a six to bring his total to 19 off just six balls (strike rate of better than 300!) Unexpectedly, Frans Steyn anchored the partnership well, rotating the strike to allow for the big hitting Van der Merwe to hit six after glorious six.
David Miller bore the brunt, conceding 24 off just one over.
Steyn held his nerve while Van der Merwe took the bowlers to the cleaners and despite the Dolphins’ attempts to limit the damage with some slightly faster bowling, he wasn’t to be stopped.
Getting into his stride he surpassed the batting prowess of all around him and has certainly endeared himself to his team-mates as well as fans as we look forward to his role with The Sharks this year.
A worthy Man of the Match, he closed the game out with a powerful six with three overs remaining as he finished off with wonderful stats of 84 runs off just 27 balls (a strike rate of 311). During his innings, he struck 6 fours and 8 sixes.
What a fantastic day it was and one can only hope this spectacle is continued for a long time to come.
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My wife went on the rampage herself as she took well over 100 pictures, but I am sure the few we added in the article would be enjoyed all the same.
[cincopa AkMAtE7Zi8vx]
Please note photo’s will follow soon
Day sounded great. Also well done to both teams for doing this as it all goes to charity.
Like I said on the other cricket thread, just reading about Franco it sounded like he should have been playing cricket instead of rugby…hahaha. Must have been great watching him smashing them all over the field. 84 off of 27 balls is just ridiculous for a rugby player……hahaha. One expects that from a cricketer.
Don’t for get the photo’s bro. There was one in the papers today.
I know the Dolphins cricket team sort of went down but hell didn’t know they were this bad losing against Rugby players. I rate the Dolphins just above NZ and Sri Lanka now
3 @ Bliksem:
@ Puma:
Pooms Photo slide show is up, hope it works ok, seems good but I will await Rudi’s judgement as it is the first time I have done this as putting it into a slideshow
well the slideshow is working by me so it should be the same for everyone
Damn I am proud of myself
The slideshow is done in a way where you click on the arrow on the pic and you can speed up the watching of the pics as you want
Photos are great bro, gives us a good feel of the day yesterday. Should have gone, almost went. Next year will go for sure.
6 @ Sharks_forever:
Well done! 
Great photos.
Just going to eat dinner quick, back in a half hour.
I know the Stormers play against the Cobra’s as well every year but I take it they couldn’t this year as the Cobra’s was busy thrashing NZ in PE.
@ Puma:
Thanks bro, enjoy dinner
@ Bliksem:
Hi Bliksem, Not sure maybe they did. remember though this is also not the first match between the Sharks and Dolphins
Or was it the Press playing against the Cobra’s. I know one year they played someone else in a charity game.
But dunno if anyone can remember but about 21 to 22 years ago and before it WP use to play the WP U/19 in a annual fixture. They laaities use to give the toppies a good in those games.
@ Bliksem:
got no idea lol, you could be right
We should do this more often, whoever goes to the big games this year should take photos and put it up in a thread. Kinda brings the game to us a bit here.
Nice work bro.
Tjarkie, you should have re-sized the pictures (500 wide x about 400 pixels), they are taking an absolute age to load!
In fact, you HAVE to go and re-size them, otherwise I’m going to delete the Cincopa Gallery.
84 of 27 balls that is over 3 runs a ball!
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