Border won the toss and elected to field first in their Three-Day Provincial Cup match against visitors Easterns at Buffalo Park Thursday.
The decision paid early dividends as three wickets fell in the first half hour of play.
But later in the day wickets were hard to come by and shortly before stumps the visitors were dismissed for 320.
Border’s star bowler Phaphama Foejela was in top form from the start, capturing two wickets for no runs in his first two overs. Then fellow paceman Sithembile Langa joined in and grabbed one wicket as the Easterns top-order imploded at 17 for three wickets after 5.1 overs.
Wesley Coulentianos and captain Grant Thomson then added a vital 91 runs in only 80 minutes in a fourth-wicket partnership which steadied the ship somewhat. But at 108 a double disaster struck Easterns. Paceman Bamanye Xenxe took the prize wicket of Thomson who gave a catch to Malwande Zamo, and the Easterns captain was out for an entertaining 59 scored off 59 balls and which included nine fours.
But two balls later new batsman Sizwe Masondo, the Easterns wicketkeeper, was run out by Zamo for a duck without facing a ball.
Coulentianos and Matt Arnold took Easterns to lunch at 132/5 but immediately after the interval Fojela struck for the third time. He clean-bowled Coulentianos for 46 (95 balls, 6x4) after a stay of 137 minutes.
The afternoon session belonged to Arnold and Dyllan Matthews, who scored 68. They came together after Ryan Cartwright was out for 13 at 171 for seven and they accumulated 136 for the eight wicket. During this time Border used eight bowlers without success as skipper Jason Niemand rang the changes.
Eventually it was Fojela who dismissed Arnold for 94. The middle-order batsman’s innings lasted for just over four hours and he hit 14 boundaries and a six.
Fojela wrapped up the innings when he had Rowan Richards lbw and finished with the excellent figures of 5/46...