Johannesburg — Lightning around Potchefstroom ended a contest in the CSA T20 Challenge that was intriguingly poised midway through the power play period in the Knights’ run chase.
A magnificent opening burst from Glenton Stuurman saw him pick up the wickets of Gihahn Cloete — first ball — and then Pite van Biljon in the third over, to leave the Knights in a bit of bother. Then came the lightning which forced the players off the field, and ultimately time ran out for the remaining three overs to be bowled in the Knights innings to constitute a match.
The Free Staters, who start the new season at the bottom of the overall points table and are in danger of being relegated to Division 2, had held the upper hand for most of the first match on day two of the tournament.
That the Warriors were even able to reach their total was thanks to a mature knock from from 20-year-old Jordan Hermann that married audacious and powerful shot making with just enough patience and an ability to pick up crucial singles that allowed him to bat for a big chunk of the innings.
Hermann made the move from Tshwane to Gqeberha in the winter. He’d served notice of his ability in the Four-Day series last season, making a century against the Dolphins at SuperSport Park, but Tuesday’s performance firmly put him in the category of ‘one to watch’ this summer.
Hermann gave the Warriors innings some much-needed impetus after the power play in which they lost both openers, Matthew Breetzke and Wihan Lubbe, while scoring just 28 runs with the fielding restrictions in place.
Hermann dispatched Knights skipper Aubrey Swanepoel for two leg-side sixes in the seventh over, in which he scored 15 runs.
However, wickets fell at regular intervals throughout the Warriors innings, with Swanepoel returning to take three. Not until No 11 Akhona Mnyaka arrived at the crease was Hermann able to get on strike consistently, and having done so he punished Migael Pretorius with some massive shots in the last over. Herman struck a four and then back-to-back sixes off the first three balls of that final over, and added three more runs, to give the scoreboard some respectability.
He finished on 67 not out, that came off just 45 balls and included three fours and five sixes. The next best score for the Warriors was Lubbe’s 18.
While Swanepoel was the most successful of the Knights bowlers, it was the four-prong pace attack, led by left-arm Mbulelo Budaza, who took 2-11, which kept the pressure on the Warriors.
IOL Sport