Draw knocks Border for six

A bitter taste was left in the mouth as the Border cricket team was knocked out of the Af rica Cup T20 competition by an elimination draw after the second and third days’ play were abandoned as a result of persistent rain over Saturday and Saturday night creating an unplayable, waterlogged field.

The draw took place at Buffalo Park yesterday morning and Zimbabwe ended up as the lucky qualifiers of the draw. They progressed to the semifinals, despite losing the game they played on Friday.

For the hosts it was a very disappointing end to the weekend, after they started it with a bang by thumping Easterns by eight wickets (see scores page 15).

“It’s unfortunate that it had to be decided this way but obviously that’s the way that CSA had set up the tournament,” said Border captain Simon Harmer. “It is really disappointing; we put in a lot of hard work, time and effort for this tournament.”

This was the first time that a leg of the Africa Cup had to be decided in that way, with the rule having been in effect since the inaugural edition last year.

The rule states that: “In the event that four or more of the matches in a weekend are recorded as a ‘no result’, all matches played will be declared null and void.

“In this instance an elimination process will be implemented.

“This will be done by an elimination draw commencing with all four teams participating in the initial draw, with one team being eliminated.

“The second elimination draw will be between the remaining three teams, with one of the teams being eliminated.

“The third and final elimination draw will be between the last two teams, with the winner progressing through to the finals weekend.”

In the draw, Harmer as the host captain was able to pick first and he picked a white ball twice in a row as first Free State and then Easterns were eliminated.

With Border and Zimbabwe left, Harmer then picked the red ball, sending Zimbabwe through.

“Because of the tight weekend and each team only playing three games we came up with a solution of how we are going to circumvent a weekend like this where unfortunately it is rained out,” said CSA tournament director Mike Gajjar.

“Last year we didn’t have this situation and in the workshop that we had before the start of the competition all of the teams were happy that this was the best way to go.

“After this tournament we will have another workshop and teams will be able to give their input again.”

For Border now, they will need to shake off the disappointment and start preparing for the start of the regular cricket season in October.

“I think they really need to re-look at the playing conditions. I just feel that all the teams were on show and it’s not a case where no team played a game so you could judge in terms of the quality of cricket that had been played,” said Border coach Frank Plaatjes.

“It is a really tough one to take; it is disappointing to go out of the tournament on lucky draws but those are the playing conditions and we have to accept that.”