On the day the Cape Argus got cancelled because of strong winds, the Rollers ran into something of a hurricane themselves when they faced Hermanus on Sunday.
Coming off a two-game winning streak in which our batsmen surpassed 200 on both occasions, it was a confident line-up that took first strike on a wicket with a fair bit of turn and bounce.
Hannes Carlson (34) and Andrew Young (10) got us off to a great start as well, putting on 37 for the first wicket at a run a ball before the latter ran himself out – the after-effects of a night spent drinking there for all to see.
From there it was a steady fall of wickets, with the visitors unable to find an answer to the turning track. Only Cornell Keulder offered any kinds of resistance, smashing his way to a brisk 47 before being the last man out.
Still, 151 on a tricky wicket with a good bowling line-up … we fancied our chances.
Wickets were hard to come by, but some tight bowling from Cornell (5-0-11-0), Andrew (4-0-20-0), Michael van Dewenter (4-1-13-1) and Ryan Cooper (5-0-20-1) meant the run-rate was kept in check.
Until the drinks break that was.
Whatever was served up had a different effect on the two teams, with the Rollers dropping everything in sight and Hermanus moering everything out of the ground.
Johan Botha was particularly severe – his card looking as follows: 1-6-6-6-4-6-6-4-4-6. The last five balls were consecutive off Jacques Laubscher’s bowling, who finished with the unenviable figures of 2-0-37-0.
It meant that the hosts got the winning runs with 10 overs remaining, in the process teaching the Rollers an emphatic lesson in how to bat on a turning track.
Still, a great time had afterwards, and thanks again to Jakes, Greg and the rest of the Hermanus team for a great day out.