Border crumbled to a disappointing 113 run loss against Northerns in their Cricket South Africa Provincial One-Day Challenge match at Buffalo Park yesterday.
The three-day match against the same opponents ended in a draw after the second and third days were washed out on Friday and Saturday.
Yesterday Border restricted Northerns to a reachable 226/9 but they were skittled for just 113 in reply in 28 overs. In fact Border allowed Northerns to recover from a score of 111/6 at one stage, but Northerns’ Grant Thomson was the hero, scoring 103 to drag his team to a defendable target.
Border’s chase got off to a difficult start as Martin Walters (6) and Yaseen Vallie (8) fell to Eldred Hawken and Migael Pretorius respectively with Border on 16/2 within the first six overs.
Gionne Koopman and Marco Marais then steadied the ship with an important 59-run partnership that looked to have swung the match back in Border’s favour, but with the score on 75/2 in the 17th over, a disastrous batting collapse then saw eight wickets fall for just 38 runs.
Marais, having struck a run-a-ball 39 featuring three fours and three sixes, lost his wicket, which started the collapse. With Koopman’s 28 and Mncedisi Malika’s 11 the only other double-figure scores, the Border innings fell apart in epic fashion.
Northerns’ Ruben Claassen enjoyed a fantastic match putting in his fledgling career’s best performances with both the ball and the bat, taking 5/16 in six overs to decimate Border’s middle order, while also scoring 48 runs for the visitors.
In the morning Border won the toss and elected to field and it looked to be a good decision as their bowlers gave them a solid start.
Early pressure from Phaphama Fojela and Clayton Bosch limited Northerns scoring as they struggled to get them away. From the other end Sinovuyo Ntuntwana struck twice, first bowling Lerato Kgoatle (5) in the second over and then having Victor Mahlangu (9) caught by a blinding effort from Jerry Nqolo which saw him leap in the air and catch the ball one-handed with a superb effort.
Border continued bowling very tidily and the pressure eventually told as first Jonathan Vandiar (14) was run out by Nqolo and then Rivaldo Moonsamy (3) was trapped LBW by Koopman, leaving them in all trouble at 58/4 after 19.1 overs.
Thomson was losing partners at a rapid rate and despite small partnerships that seemed to be keeping Northerns in the game they were heading for a very low score as Thomas Kaber (10) was run out by Yaseen Vallie and Tony de Zorzi (13) was caught by Bosch off the bowling of Nqolo.
Between those dismissals Thomson had brought up his half century, but at 111/6 after 33.1 overs things were looking dicey for the visitors.
However, Thomson finally found a willing partner in Claassen and the two set about an impressive 89-run seventh-wicket partnership in which Thomson brought up his century with two successive boundaries off Bosch in the 46th over.
In the next over the 200 was brought up and the next two deliveries saw Fojela bowl Thomson for 103 off 117 balls (10x4, 1x6) and then Pretorius for a first-ball duck.
Claassen and Hawken (8 not out) then took Northerns to the end of the innings with a 26-run stand that ended with Claassen (48) being run out off the last ball of the innings.
Border fail in vital match
The three-day match against the same opponents ended in a draw after the second and third days were washed out on Friday and Saturday.
Yesterday Border restricted Northerns to a reachable 226/9 but they were skittled for just 113 in reply in 28 overs. In fact Border allowed Northerns to recover from a score of 111/6 at one stage, but Northerns’ Grant Thomson was the hero, scoring 103 to drag his team to a defendable target.
Border’s chase got off to a difficult start as Martin Walters (6) and Yaseen Vallie (8) fell to Eldred Hawken and Migael Pretorius respectively with Border on 16/2 within the first six overs.
Gionne Koopman and Marco Marais then steadied the ship with an important 59-run partnership that looked to have swung the match back in Border’s favour, but with the score on 75/2 in the 17th over, a disastrous batting collapse then saw eight wickets fall for just 38 runs.
Marais, having struck a run-a-ball 39 featuring three fours and three sixes, lost his wicket, which started the collapse. With Koopman’s 28 and Mncedisi Malika’s 11 the only other double-figure scores, the Border innings fell apart in epic fashion.
Northerns’ Ruben Claassen enjoyed a fantastic match putting in his fledgling career’s best performances with both the ball and the bat, taking 5/16 in six overs to decimate Border’s middle order, while also scoring 48 runs for the visitors.
In the morning Border won the toss and elected to field and it looked to be a good decision as their bowlers gave them a solid start.
Early pressure from Phaphama Fojela and Clayton Bosch limited Northerns scoring as they struggled to get them away. From the other end Sinovuyo Ntuntwana struck twice, first bowling Lerato Kgoatle (5) in the second over and then having Victor Mahlangu (9) caught by a blinding effort from Jerry Nqolo which saw him leap in the air and catch the ball one-handed with a superb effort.
Border continued bowling very tidily and the pressure eventually told as first Jonathan Vandiar (14) was run out by Nqolo and then Rivaldo Moonsamy (3) was trapped LBW by Koopman, leaving them in all trouble at 58/4 after 19.1 overs.
Thomson was losing partners at a rapid rate and despite small partnerships that seemed to be keeping Northerns in the game they were heading for a very low score as Thomas Kaber (10) was run out by Yaseen Vallie and Tony de Zorzi (13) was caught by Bosch off the bowling of Nqolo.
Between those dismissals Thomson had brought up his half century, but at 111/6 after 33.1 overs things were looking dicey for the visitors.
However, Thomson finally found a willing partner in Claassen and the two set about an impressive 89-run seventh-wicket partnership in which Thomson brought up his century with two successive boundaries off Bosch in the 46th over.
In the next over the 200 was brought up and the next two deliveries saw Fojela bowl Thomson for 103 off 117 balls (10x4, 1x6) and then Pretorius for a first-ball duck.
Claassen and Hawken (8 not out) then took Northerns to the end of the innings with a 26-run stand that ended with Claassen (48) being run out off the last ball of the innings.
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