To everyone’s surprise, day three at the Coca-Cola Khaya Majola Week dawned cool and rainy, leading to major disruptions to the morning schedule of T20 matches, writes THEO GARRUN.
Two venues had to be changed, two games were called off altogether, and all the games that were played were reduced in length – some as few as five overs per side.
Under these circumstances, the results were even more of a lottery than anticipated, even in 20-over cricket, and there were one or two shock results. The biggest of those was Namibia’s seven-wicket win over Northerns. In a game reduced to 12 overs a side, Northerns could only score 83-6 and Namibia passed that with three wickets down, thanks mainly a 51 not out from Shaun Fouche.
Free State caused a bit of a surprise by beating Gauteng by 36 runs. They certainly made better use of their 12 overs on the small field at Wynberg Boys’ High, with Garnett Tarr (32) and Gerald Coetzee (29) starring for them.
The afternoon games were all full length and the big shock was Northern Cape’s four-wicket win over Eastern Province.
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Western Province were given a big scare by SWD. They were chasing 110 and were taken right into the last of their 20 overs, getting the winning runs with two balls to spare, with eight wickets down.
Free State were beaten by 33 runs by KwaZulu-Natal Coastal. The Free Staters seemed well on course to take the game when KZN’s Matthew Pollard struck. He took 4-11 in four over spell which broke Free State’s momentum and clinched the victory for his side. He was named the Coca-Cola Hero of the Day for his feat.
The fixtures for the first of the two days of 50-overs cricket on Wednesday were announced at the end of the day. At the end of Wednesday’s play the games for the final day will be decided. Western Province play Boland and Gauteng meet Northerns, with the winners of those games likely to contest Thursday’s ‘main game’.
Wednesday’s Fixtures
Western Province vs Boland (Rondebosch)
Gauteng vs Northerns (Bishops A)
Free State vs SWD (Wynberg)
Eastern Province vs Easterns (Bishops B)
KZN Inland vs Mpumalanga (Vineyard)
Namibia vs KwaZulu-Natal (UWC)
Northern Cape vs North West (Victoria)
Limpopo vs Border (Brackenfell)
Scoreboards
Morning Games
Free State 127-7 (Garnett Tarr 32, Gerald Coetzee 29, Pheko Moletsane 21; Bryce Parsons 2-25)
Gauteng 91-5 (Bryce Parsons 42, Mudiwa Chanakira 28 not out; Gerald Coetzee 1-14)
Free State won by 36 runs
Northerns 83-6 (Modiri Litheko 34; Mauritius Ngupita 2-16, Ettienne Beukes 2-20)
Namibia 86-3 (Shaun Fouché 51 not out, Divan la Cock 27; Sebastian van Rooyen 2-11)
Namibia won by seven wickets
Easterns 58-5 (Kyle Saxby 20; Matthew Montgomery 3-13)
KwaZulu-Natal Coastal 59-1 (Hayden Rossouw 24 not out, Matthew Montgomery 19 not out)
KwaZulu-Natal Coastal won by nine wickets
KwaZulu-Natal Inland 90-5 (James Ritchie 34, Robert McGaw 24)
Limpopo 62-7 (Johan Harms 17; Jayden Gengan 2-12)
KwaZulu-Natal won by 28 runs
South Western Districts 42-7 (Johannes Lambrecht 2/14)
Boland 46-5 (Akeem Minnaar 20 not out; Tyrique Wessels 3-17)
Boland won by five wickets
Northern Cape 71-4 (Andrew Louw 26)
Border 72-2 (Matt Dewar 27 not out, Stuart Els 24)
Border won by eight wickets
The Western Province vs North West and Eastern Province vs Mpumalanga games could not be played because of wet pitches.
Afternoon games
Easterns 98-8 (Maxwell Meyer 26 not out; Kgaudise Molefe 3-21)
Gauteng 100-1 (Cameron Shekleton 22 not out, Mudiwa Chanakira 45 not out).
Gauteng won by 9 wickets
Boland 148-4 (Ruan Terblanche 71 not out, Nkisinathi Ngoxi 30, Rudolf Claasen 40)
North West 115-9 (Stiaan Swanepoel 37; Johannes Lamprecht 3-12)
Boland won by 33 runs
Limpopo 84 (Fumani Maluleke 24; Reynecke Shaikh 4-17)
Northerns 87-1 (Ludwig Kaestner 51, Wusani Mushwana 32 not out)
Northerns won by 9 wickets
Eastern Province 113-8 (Callum Francis 26, Mark Amm 35; Stephan de Klerk 2-14)
Northern Cape 116-6 (Relesego Motthibi 27 not out)
Northern Cape won by 4 wickets
KwaZulu-Natal Coastal 149-5 (Caleb Pillay 39, Matthew Montgomery 30; Ruan Cronje 2-15)
Free State 116-9 (Christoffel Klijnhans 32, Gerald Coetzee 32; Matthew Pollard 4-11)
KwaZulu-Natal Coastal won by 33 runs
SWD 110-7 (Migael Vermeulen 42; Jordan Collier 2-18)
Western Province 112-8 (Lehan Botha 40; Jean Bruiners 2-22)
Western Province won by 2 wickets
Namibia 104 (Divan la Cock 25; Mondli Khumalo 2-4, Michale Brownlee 2-14)
KwaZulu-Natal Inland 105-7 (Nathaniel Benjamin 23, Fraser Jones 3 not out)
KwaZulu-Natal Inland won by 3 wickets
Mpumalanga 107-8 (Walimohammed Vuyani 26)
Border 77 (Stuart Els 20, Matt Dewar 21; Tsepiso Magagula 4-27, Ewan Lombaard 4-12)
Mpumalanga won by 30 runs
Photo: Theo Garrun
