Captain Wihan Lubbe has put the North West Dragons’ convincing win over the Central Gauteng Lions on Sunday down to good execution of their batting plan. KHUNULOGO MPOLOKENG reports.
Lubbe led the Dragons’ assault after they won the toss and opted to bat in the One-Day Cup match at the Wanderers. He scored four fours and five sixes to rush to his 15th List A fifty in just 42 deliveries before being dismissed for 80 (off 64).
Matthew Kleinveldt (64 off 61) and Lesiba Ngoepe (53* off 39) also scored half-centuries, while opener Rubin Hermann contributed with 47 off 66 balls to help the visitors post a competitive 310-6 before rain cut short their innings with four balls remaining.
Thereafter, they bowled out the Lions for 249 in 45.2 overs to bag their second win of the 50-over competition, by 65 runs (DLS).
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“We’ve been working on certain things as a group, as a batting unit,” said Lubbe. “And today it ended up going my way, but Lesiba’s innings, Matthew Kleinveldt’s innings; I would put us all in a basket together. Each one of us followed our blueprint to the T today.
“And I think the intensity from running between the wickets to not allowing them to bowl at you, I feel that the middle order played it well today in that sense. So as much as I would like to take credit, I think it’s a collective [effort], the whole middle order came to the party and that’s the plan we come with. On the day, if it is one or two guys [who stand out] then you’re in a position to win games and that’s what we want to achieve.”
Five of the eight batsmen the Dragons used in the match, including Lubbe, are left handed, and the captain acknowledged that that helped their tactics on the day.
“I wouldn’t say it’s always an advantage,” said Lubbe. “I think in games like today their two main threats were Bjorn [Fortuin] and, on a wicket like today’s, Nqaba [Peter] as well, not taking anything away from Reeza [Hendricks] with the ball.
“So if we manage them well when they start turning the ball into your left handers it gives us more boundary scoring opportunities. So in today’s game it was definitely a bit of an advantage; but in saying that, we have a few right handers waiting for their chance. So all round, we’re happy with the squad we have at the moment. It is unique to have five out of seven left handers and we’re not complaining too much.”
After beating the Free State Knights and losing to Western Province in their opening two matches, the win at the Wanderers took the Dragons to second on the log, five points behind the table-topping Boland.
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Lubbe said they are pleased to have managed to win against a side that has dominated the domestic competitions as much as the Lions have.
“They’ve been one of the better teams consistency-wise over the past few years. We were speaking about it that we haven’t won against the Lions in a really long time, so for us it’s a very special win. And doing it at the Wanderers, it’s a nice place to visit, so very happy with where we are.
“If you beat the Lions it’s always big because they almost always, without bowling a ball, walk out onto the field as favourites especially with the cricket they’ve played in the past few years.
“For us to be able to walk away today with a win is massive; it allows us to play with a bit of freedom in the next game or two knowing that, if it goes our way, we’re in a really strong position.
“I think Boland are showing a lot of teams how to stick to a blueprint, and our main aim will be how long can we stick to our best game of cricket; and like we saw today, if we’re on song we take some doing to beat.”
