The Gbets Rocks are in a powerful position with an overall lead of 362 runs with one second-innings wicket in hand at the end of an action-packed second day of their Division One CSA 4-Day Series match against the Dafabet Warriors at Boland Park in Paarl on Friday.
The Rocks were dominant in the first half of the day, with their 21-year-old paceman Achille Cloete claiming his first five-wicket haul in only his third first-class match as the Warriors collapsed from their overnight score of 52 for two to 161 all out.
Batting again with a lead of 171, the Rocks reached 191 for nine in their second innings as a total of 17 wickets fell during the day.
If Cloete was the Rocks’ bowling hero, then paceman Glenton Stuurman did yeoman service for the Warriors. Having taken 5-72 in 18 overs in the Rocks’ first innings, he has so far added an impressive 4-29 in 13 overs in their second knock.
Stuurman accounted for opener Ruan Terblanche and added the scalps of Clyde Fortuin, Shaun von Berg and Hardus Viljoen before the close. A further wicket on Saturday would enable him to claim his third 10-wicket match haul.
Aside from a fluent 30 in 46 balls from Stiaan van Zyl, the only real resistance in the Rocks’ second innings came from a century partnership from Clyde Fortuin (47) and Shaun von Berg.
The pair took the total from a parlous 76 for five to 176 for six in 30 overs before Von Berg (51) was leg before to Stuurman.
Earlier, the Warriors resumed their first innings on their overnight total of 52 for two, losing a further four wickets in the morning session.
Jordan Hermann was the first to go for a bright 44 in 48 balls, including eight fours and a six, when he was caught by Ruan Terblanche off the bowling of Cloete. Matthew Breetzke followed soon afterwards with the same pair combining to see him off for 17.
Rudi Second (37) and Diego Rosier (27) staged something of a fightback, adding 60 for the fifth wicket before the top wicket-taker in the CSA T20 Challenge, Bamanye Xenxe, trapped them both leg before.
Cloete, educated at Paarl Boys High, claimed 5-27 in 16.2 overs.
Having taken his first wicket, that of Lesiba Ngoepe, on Thursday evening, he went on to grab the first two wickets of the day, Hermann and Breetzke, before cleaning up the tail comprising Mthiwekhaya Nabe and Akhona Mnyaka to complete his haul.
The Warriors’ Beyers Swanepoel was unable to bat after being injured on Thursday.
Report Day 1FRIDAY PLAY ABANDONED IN TITANS-PROVINCE GAME
Play on the second day of the Division One CSA 4-Day Series match between the Momentum Multiply Titans and Six Gun Grill Western Province had to be abandoned after rain settled in after lunch.
Province had earlier placed the champions under severe pressure when at one stage they reduced them to one run for three wickets in their reply to Province’s 328 all out.
Play began 75 minutes late on Friday because of rain, with the Titans on one run for two wickets, and when the players eventually left the field shortly before the normal lunch break, the Titans had crawled to 19 for three with Neil Brand on nine off 32 balls and Theunis de Bruyn on nine off 17 balls.
The Titans are now 309 runs behind Province with seven wickets in hand.
The man to do the early damage, on Thursday night and Friday morning, was left-arm paceman Beuran Hendricks who dismissed Dean Elgar and Sibs Makhanya for ducks overnight and then claimed a third scalp, that of nightwatchman Junior Dala, for a third duck on Friday.
At one stage, Hendricks luxuriated in the extraordinary figures of 3-2-1-3 and it took until the end of the seventh over of their innings for the Titans’ run total to overtake the wickets that had gone down.
WET OUTFIELD DROWNS KNIGHTS/DRAGONS GAME
A wet outfield has prevented any play on Friday in the Division One CSA 4-Day Series match between the ITEC Knights and the North West Dragons at the Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein.
In a match badly affected by the weather, only one session of play, on Thursday morning, has so far been possible. After being put in to bat, the Dragons have so far reached 94 for one wicket in their first innings with opener Grant Mokoena unbeaten on 78.