UJ beat NMMU by 53 runs on Saturday to end the Eastern Cape side’s hopes of making the Varsity Cricket play-offs.
The Johannesburg team were simply too strong for the Madibaz, with a half-century from captain Neels Bergh and a five wicket haul from Keith Dudgeon central to secure their spot in the semifinals.
UJ batted first and lost two early wickets, but the danger man Yaseen Valli managed to build a partnership with his captain Neels Bergh.
Bergh took the initiative to attack, whilst Vallie was content to feed him the strike and together they took UJ to 80/2 at the 10 over drinks break.
Valli was on his way soon afterwards when he was caught for 21 off the bowling of Brad Dolley, and Harry van Straaten did not last long before being bowled by Jason Davidson.
Bergh continued on his way however and soon brought up his 50, eventually getting out for 70 off just 56 balls and thanks to the platform laid by the skipper, UJ managed a competitive total of 152/7.
NMMU got off to bit of a shaky start, losing two wickets in consecutive balls in the third over as Keith Dudgoen accounted for Curtis Samboer and skipper Lloyd Brown.
The ship was steadied by David White and Edward Moore, but White was trapped LBW by Van Straaten for 32 in the tenth over, leaving the Madibaz 69/3 at the halfway stage, needing 84 runs in 60 balls for victory.
Van Straaten followed that up by taking two more wickets in his third over to leave the Madibaz facing a massive uphill struggle at 81/6 with just eight overs left.
The wickets kept falling as Jayden Broodryk got in on the act as well, and the Madibaz were soon all out to bring an end to their tournament.
UJ: 152/7 (N Bergh 70, U Asad 24*, B Dolley 2/17, J Davidson 1/12)
NMMU: 110 all out (White 32, Moore 23; K Dudgeon 5/29, H Van Straaten 3/20)
Teams:
UJ: Yaseen Valli, Grant Roelofsen, Delano Potgieter, Neels Bergh (captain), Harry Van Straaten, Jayden Broodryk, Umar Asad, Ndumiso Mvelase, Keith Dudgeon, Matthew Varner, Damien Hutchinson.
NMMU-Madibaz: David White, Edward Moore, Mathew Christensen, Lloyd Brown (captain), Curtis Samboer, Aubrey Ferreira, Brad Dolley, Hanno Kotze, Ngazibini Sigwili, Solomzi Nqweni, Stefan Tait.
