Louis Trichardt dominates Giyani in double-header

Date: 23 October 2025 By: Andries van Zyl

The Louis Trichardt Cricket Club dominated Giyani on Sunday, 19 October, in another double-header in their final league matches of the Limpopo T20 cricket league.

Louis Trichardt made excellent use of their home-ground advantage once again, dispatching Giyani cheaply in their first match of the day. Batting first, the Giyani batsmen found themselves in all sorts of trouble from the first ball they faced, ending up being bowled out for just 50 runs on the scoreboard in 17 overs.

The low score rate was due to a masterclass performance by Louis Trichardt’s bowlers, with Craig Viljoen as the top performer. He ended his four-over spell with an economy rate of 1.3, taking three wickets for the loss of only five runs. His spell included 21 dot balls. Leon Olwage and Jabir Abhuji also delivered three-wicket hauls, taking three wickets for the loss of eight runs in three overs (3/8/3) and three wickets for the loss of seven runs in three overs (3/7/3), respectively. The only Giyani batsman to make it to double figures was Dumisani Ngwenya, with 11 runs off 24 balls.

Louis Trichardt had no problem chasing down the target, securing the winning runs of 51 for the loss of only one wicket in just 3.6 overs. This was mainly due to a blistering 12 runs (three fours) off just five balls from opener Craig Viljoen before losing his wicket, and Leon Olwage (not out), who punished Giyani with 31 runs off just 16 balls, which included three fours and three sixes. This resulted in a convincing nine-wicket win for Louis Trichardt. Mikhenso Maluleke was the only wicket-taker for Giyani.

With an already tough day at the office for Giyani, their day was to get even longer. In the second clash of the day, Louis Trichardt went in to bat first in an innings that saw the home side score 160 runs for the loss of six wickets in their 20 overs. The top contributor with the bat was A.C. Geldenhuys, who fell just three runs short of a half-century with 47 runs off 39 balls. A couple of other Louis Trichardt batsmen also reached double figures, including Nimesh Watekar (21), Gerhardus Fourie (14), Irfan Aiyub Patel (15 not out) and Usman Arshad (25 not out).

Top Giyani bowlers were Masungulo Sebata and Mikhenso Maluleke, who took 2/22/4 and 2/28/4 respectively, while Mustaq Patel and Ntshovelo Mikhavelee each took one wicket.

In their second batting innings of the day, Giyani’s batsmen suffered even worse at the hands of Louis Trichardt’s bowlers. With Matimba Khosa fighting his way to 10 runs (the only double figures in their innings) off 22 balls, Giyani were bowled out for only 42 runs in 16.4 overs, securing Louis Trichardt a 118-run win. For the home side, Craig Viljoen again top-performed with bowling figures of 3/9/4, while Gerhardus Fourie took 2/8/3, Tshivhase Phindulo 2/8/4, and Paulo Piorek, Irfan Aiyub Patel and Julius Kemp each took one wicket.

Louis Trichardt have everything to celebrate. Following their convincing performance on Sunday, they finished top of the log in their pool and have officially advanced to the semi-finals of the provincial league on 23 November this year.

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Andries van Zyl

Andries joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in April 1993 as a darkroom assistant. Within a couple of months he moved over to the production side of the newspaper and eventually doubled as a reporter. In 1995 he left the newspaper group and travelled overseas for a couple of months. In 1996, Andries rejoined the Zoutpansberger as a reporter. In August 2002, he was appointed as News Editor of the Zoutpansberger, a position he holds until today.