Ongama Gcwabe
THE Warriors extended their unbeaten run to four matches as they beat the Rocks by 33 runs on the DLS Method at St George’s Park in the fifth round of the Cricket SA T20 Challenge.
Warriors’ quicks Beyers Swanepoel and Anrich Nortje took the new ball and led the attack as they looked to defend 166 against the Rocks, a team that went into the fixture without a victory. Swanepoel struck twice in the first over, claiming the wickets of the Malan brothers, Janneman and Pieter.
Janneman (one), looking to nullify Swanepoel’s swing, took a few steps down the wicket but did so too early, as Swanepoel spotted him in time to adapt his line and lengths.
Swanepoel bowled short and wide, a strategy that led to the batter playing away from his body, only to get an edge through to the wicketkeeper to hand the Warriors their first scalp.
Pieter walked in to bat at No 3 and got an unplayable in-swinger from Swanepoel. The delivery beat the inside edge of his bat and sent the stumps cartwheeling to put Swanepoel on a hat-trick.
In the eighth over, the game was paused for 11 minutes due to rain and three overs were lost, leaving the revised target at 152 runs. That did not break the momentum of the Warriors attack as Swanepoel completed a flawless spell of 4/16 and Patrick Kruger returned 3/20.
Earlier, the Warriors had a nervous start with the bat as captain Matthew Breetzke’s struggles continued. The 25-year-old chopped a full-length delivery from fast bowler Hardus Viljoen (2/28) onto his stumps in the first over of the match.
However, Jiveshan Pillay led from the front with a magnificent 29-ball 45 and helped the Warriors set a target of 166 runs.
In Johannesburg, the Lions beat Western Province by the smallest of margins, following their one-run victory over the Titans last Friday.
With Province setting a low target of 128, the Lions’ innings was delayed twice due to rain and bad light, and a revised target of 52 in seven overs was set. The Lions put themselves eight runs within reach of the target with one over remaining but experienced Province all-rounder Wayne Parnell conceded only seven runs and sent the match to a super over.
In the super over, Parnell took the ball for Province and conceded 10 runs with Lions batter Evan Jones muscling one boundary off the over. To everyone’s surprise, the Lions handed 17-year-old Kwena Maphaka the super over and the youngster defended the 10-run target and saw the Lions win by one run.
Earlier, Province batter David Bedingham (37) top-scored while the rest of the batting order struggled. Lutho Sipamla (2/20) and Codi Yusuf (2/28) produced brilliant bowling spells to keep a strong Province batting unit quiet.
In Durban, the encounter between the Dolphins and the North West Dragons saw just over an hour of play before the rain led to the match being called off. The Dolphins were looking on course to register their third victory as they had the Dragons struggling on 79/4 after 13.2 overs before the heavens opened.
Rubin Herman (25) top-scored for the Dragons as the two teams shared the points. Dolphins captain Prenelan Subrayen led from the front once again and returned figures of 2/28 in his four-over spell.