The Rollers ventured into foreign territory on Sunday with a debut appearance in the Last Man Standing format at the Distell fields in Stellenbosch.
The concept of eight fielders, five-ball overs, double-plays and ‘home runs’ blew our minds, but the basic concept of ‘see ball, hit ball’ was still in play, so with that in mind we took to the field against the brilliantly-named Bacon Bacon Bacon full of confidence.
The Rollers batted first and got off to a flyer, with Ryan Cooper retiring on 50 off 26 balls, ably supported by James Lamprecht (16 off 10), Neville Cooper (27 off 24) and Jarryd van Wyk (35 off 18).
Bacon fought their way back with some sllllloooooooooww bowling, but Cornell Keulder (5 off 4), Michael van Dewenter (10 off 9), Mark Haselau (8 off 9) and Ruan de Jongh (10 off 7) still managed to get us to a very competitive 167/6 in our 20 overs.
In response, Bacon were on the back foot straight away, with Cornell (4-0-16-0) keeping it tight, and Michael (4-0-30-1) getting the big wicket of Daniel Eardley with a great catch off his own bowling.
James then produced a Man of the Match bowling performance, landing yorker after yorker in his 3/21, while Ruan was as good with his slower balls in a spell of 2/28.
In the end, the nationals-bound Bacon fell 16 runs short as the Rollers flew the FCA flag high, though they were more than up for the challenge in the post-match fines, which included a lukewarm bottle of tequila…