Evan Jones dominated the first day of the Division Two CSA four-day match as the Northern Cape right-hander blasted an unbeaten 157 from just 128 balls (18x4, 8x6) to lead his side to an unlikely total of 351 before the visitors from South Western Districts closed the day on 35 without loss at the Diamond Oval in Kimberley on Thursday.
Northern Cape’s top five batters all passed 20 but at 139 for five, with Isaac Dikgale top-scoring with 42 from 97 balls, the waste of good starts looked likely to be terminal. But that was before 25-year-old Jones changed the script with an array of counter-attacking shots which dismembered the SWD attack.
Twenty-five-year-old Jones launched into the bowling attack like a man with a first-class batting average of 60.2 might be expected to and with the confidence of a man whose team lead the second division standings with three wins from their first four games.
Seamer Renaldo Meyer returned excellent figures of 5-55 from his 16.2 overs for SWD, but it was a hard slog for the rest of the attack on a day which looked like it might have been a lot easier.
Yaseen Valli (16*) and Blayde Capell (18*) made it through unscathed to the end of the day but Jones’s thunderous assault may have set the tone for the match and Northern Cape’s ambitious drive for promotion to Division One