Robbie Frylinck-inspired Hollywoodbets Crusaders CC recovered from an opening day defeat at the hands of Jendamark United Cricket to win the 2023 Cricket South Africa (CSA) T20 Community Cup played in Johannesburg from 8-10 December.
The former Proteas all-rounder played a pivotal role as the KwaZulu-Natal Coastal representatives were victorious in their next four games to finish ahead of Vredenburg Saldanha CC on the final table.
Barring that opening day blip to the Eastern Province outfit – in which Frylinck also starred with three for 32 – Crusaders bounced back strongly to see off Christian Brothers College Old Boys (CBCOB), Saldanha, Bobbie Cricket and Traveling Reefs Cricket Club.
Crusaders began the competition with a slender six-run loss, which came after they restricted Jendamark to 117 for six at Wits, before themselves being kept to 111 for eight with G Kwatsha (3-31), R Meyer (2-18) and S Patel (2-9) doing the bulk of the damage.
In match two, however, that took place later on the opening day at the same venue, former Protea Frylinck top-scored with a crucial 38 that helped his side chase down a stiff 149-run target with two balls to spare, completing a four-wicket win.
But it was Jendamark and Vredenburg who led the way at that stage. The former followed their morning win by making it two from two when they cruised past the Reefs by four wickets - Kwatsha (2-14) and Patel (2-30) again playing a key role.
Boland’s Vredenburg, meanwhile, overcame CBCOB (by eight runs) and Bobbie (by nine wickets) to sit joint top after the opening day.
Day two proved crucial for Crusaders as they secured double wins to move to the top of the table. First Frylinck struck a half century and took three for 13 in a huge 90-run triumph over Vredenburg at Delfos CC, before J Grobbelaar (47*) and C Laycock (32*) were instrumental in guiding them to a nine-wicket win over Bobbie at Soweto CC.
In the meantime, Jendamark were doing their best to keep the pressure on, and inspired by
S Duda’s (110*) century, the solitary ton of the competition that helped them post a week-high 218 for one, the cruised past Bobbie by 89 runs.
However, they suffered a crucial first defeat of the week by going down to Titans representatives CBCOB by 73 runs late on the second afternoon.
The final day was affected by rain with Jendamark and Vredenburg the biggest losers as their match ended in a no result. It meant that Crusaders needed to beat Reefs and they did so by nine wickets on the DLS Method.
They first restricted the North West outfit to 113 for nine in a rain-reduced 18 overs with C Gordon taking three for 24. J Grobbelaar then belted an unbeaten 25* to chase down a revised target of 43 in six overs from only 4.3 overs, sealing the title at UJ Oval 2.