Border U19s have reason to smile after early blow

It was a day of contrasting fortunes yesterday for the Border U19 side at the Coca-Cola Khaya Majola Cricket Week in Port Elizabeth.

The youngsters suffered a heavy loss to KwaZulu-Natal Inland in the morning, before bouncing back in style to claim their first win of the competition.

Having lost their first match and drawn their second on the first two days, Border were looking to claim a positive result going into day three’s T20 match.

However, those hopes were dashed in the first game of the day, when KwaZulu-Natal Inland claimed a 10-wicket win in the morning session, before Border bounced back in the afternoon with an exciting win over Mpumalanga in the second match.

Having posted a very competitive 148/5 in their 20 overs, Border restricted Mpumalanga to 124/7 in their chase to claim a morale-boosting 24-run win.

The impressive batting effort in the end, proved key as having to score at a rate of over eight runs an over from the outset was just too much for Mpumalanga.

Border all-rounder Bamanye Xengxe once again starred with both bat and ball, scoring 41 not out and claiming 3/12 in four overs in the match.

After bowling a wide on the first ball of the chase, Xengxe redeemed himself immediately by bowling Mpumalanga opener Schalk Sutherland for a duck off the next ball to reduce them to 1/1.

Jacques Fourie (15) and Sinegugu Maseko (50) then shared a 48-run stand only for Axola Ngwana to bowl Fourie in the eighth over as the score slipped to 49/2.

Sinegugu was then joined by Siyabonga Mtsweni and they looked to have things well on track with a 31-ball 40-run partnership.

However, with the score on 89/2 in the 13th over Mtsweni was run out for 17.

Maseko then battled on to a well-deserved half-century, before holing out to backward point off the bowling of Lukholo Gwangqa (95/4).

Mpumalanga then lost another three wickets as their chase fizzled out, ending on 124/7.

Batting first Border were indebted to the efforts of Xengxe, 41no off 27 balls (3x4, 3x6), and Winray Christoffels, 32 off 25 balls (3x4, 1x6) in helping them reach their total of 148/5.

Although there were no massive partnerships, with the first wicket stand of 39 being the highest, cameos from Nathan Roux (26) and captain Mncedisi Malika (19) added valuable runs.

In the morning’s match Border batted first and the loss of four early wickets impeded their scoring rate, with them eventually making it to a below-par 96/7 after 20 overs.

Inland then wasted absolutely no time in cruising to the target off the first ball of the 17th over without losing a wicket.

Inland openers Angus Curtis (35 off 49 balls) and Bryce Tullis (46 off 49 balls), were in hurry to take any risks with Curtis not scoring a single boundary, while Tullis found the fence just three times.

In Border’s innings captain Malika led from the front, but he ran out of partners with only Qeshile (16) and Christoffels (12no) making it into double figures.

After Border had slipped to 26/4 in the seventh over, Malika took centre-stage, dominating a 50-run partnership with Qeshile, hitting four boundaries and two maximums in his knock.

His run out, for 45 off 43 deliveries at the end of the 16th over meant Border could only manage 20 runs off the final 25 balls while losing two more wickets, with it proving not to be enough at the end.