Shaun von Berg and Imraan Manack steered Goldrush Boland to a thrilling three-wicket win over the Dafabet Warriors in their CSA One-Day Challenge encounter at Dafabet St George's Park on Saturday evening.
This is Boland's third win in three matches. It helps the side from Paarl increase the gap between them and second-placed DP World Lions. The Warriors are a few rungs lower. They have a single win, a loss and one no-result from three encounters.
Clyde Reeves-Fortuin, the Boland captain, won the toss and elected to field first. His bowlers made good use of conditions on their way to bowling the Warriors out for 198 in 43.4 overs. Their batters struggled to establish themselves until the arrival of Von Berg and Manack at the crease to shepherd them to 201/7.
Boland was on 128/7 and in all sorts of trouble when the duo came together. Von Berg and Manack showed great concentration and resolve as they stitched an unbroken 73-run partnership to drive Boland to victory. This is the highest eighth-wicket partnership for Boland in List A cricket.
The pair's innings was the difference between the two sides. The Warriors' middle and lower order folded in dramatic fashion, while Boland's tail wagged until the end. Von Berg finished the match unbeaten on 49 off 74 balls. The seasoned campaigner showed his class by curbing the impulse to look for big hits and patiently milked singles instead. He only struck two fours through his innings.
Manack went a little faster. The No 9 batter flayed two sixes and unsuccessfully tried to go big a few times. He finished with an unbeaten 37 from 57 balls.
Alfred Mothoa delivered a brilliant spell to drag the Warriors into the contest. Senuran Muthusamy, the Warriors captain, turned to the medium pacer after the powerplay. Mothoa delivered a double blow in the 12th over to dismiss Grant Roelofsen and Lehan Botha in three deliveries.
Mothoa's strike was just the inspiration the Warriors needed. Boland had dominated the first 10 overs, cantering to 51/1. Blayde Capell gave Boland a dream start, racing to Capell 23 off 22 deliveries in the first five overs. The 27-year-old faced most of the deliveries, contributing 23 of the 24 runs of his opening stand with Grant Roelofsen.
Mothoa's double strike slowed Boland down and exposed the visitors' fragile middle order. The visitors lost momentum and three more wickets for 33 runs in eight overs. Senuran Muthusamy helped keep the pressure on by chipping away at Boland's wickets column.
Boland set themselves up for victory with their bowling. Their attack has been outstanding this season. No team has scored 200 or more runs against them this season. They dismissed the Momentum Multiply Titans for 110 and the Hollywoodbets Dolphins for 174 in successive games.
They consistently hit the right areas against the Warriors and denied the hosts any room to be expansive. Their discipline masked that they lost their strike bowler, Glenton Stuurman, who hobbled off the field early in the innings. Aya Gqamane led the charge with three wickets for 24 runs. He was well-supported by Imraan Manack, Lehan Botha, and Akhona Mnyaka, who each finished with a brace of wickets
The Warriors' innings was built around two major partnerships. Diego Rosier and Jordan Hermann's 44-run opening stand and Sinethemba Qeshile and Patrick Kruger's 63-run fourth-wicket partnership. Rosier and Hermann have been reliable for the hosts this season.
They mounted a 77-run opening stand against the Hollywoodbets Dolphins last week and, though they failed to replicate that against Boland, they gave the Warriors a start.
Imraan Manack put on a good display in the middle overs. He bagged two wickets in the 20th and 24th overs to put the brakes on the Warriors' progress. However, the home side recovered through Qeshile and Kruger. The Warriors were looking at a possible total of 260 with the two at the crease.
Unfortunately, Kruger abandoned the tactics that had worked well for him and went for a big shot. Instead of clearing the ropes, he holed out to Aya Gqamane at deep mid-wicket. The Warriors' innings collapsed with the dismissal of Kruger. The allrounder's wicket was the first of seven wickets that fell for 36 runs in 8.2 overs.
Patrick Kruger and Sinethemba Qeshile were the joint-highest individual top scorers for the Warriors with 39 runs apiece. Jordan Hermann contributed 37 and was the last of the batters to cross the 30-run mark.
WARRIORS: Jordan Hermann, Diego Rosier, JP King, Jean du Plessis (wk), Sinethemba Qeshile, Patrick Kruger, Senuran Muthusamy (capt), Beyers Swanepoel, Junaid Dawood, Siyabulela Plaatjie, Alfred Mothoa.
BOLAND: Blayde Capell, Grant Roelofsen, Gavin Kaplan, Clyde Rees-Fortuin (capt, wk), Michael Copeland, Lehan Botha, Shaun von Berg, Aya Gqamane, Glenton Stuurman, Imran Manack, Akhona Mnyaka.