Peters and Mungroo bowl Dragons to victory

Gideon Peters and Kerwin Mungroo starred with the ball as they helped the Auto Investment North West Dragons claim a thrilling 11-run win over the World Sports Betting Western Province in their CSA T20 Challenge match at the JB Marks Oval, Potchefstroom, on Friday.

The Dragons, asked to bat first, scored 155 for eight, and then went on to restrict Western Province to 144 for six.

After this victory, the Dragons move up into fifth position and keep their dreams for a semifinal berth alive.

Mungroo was outstanding, conceding nine runs in his first three overs and then a mere three runs while defending 15 runs in the 20th over.

He finished the match with one wicket for 12 runs in four overs.

Peters, who was making his T20 debut for the Dragons as a replacement for Migael Pretorius, was equally outstanding.

The 24-year-old recorded new career-best bowling figures after bowling an outstanding spell.

Peters was introduced into the attack after Western Province was gathering momentum.

Eddie Moore had just bludgeoned 22 runs in the Powerplay and was in the company of Kyle Verreynne in the middle.

Things were looking ominous for the home side. The debutant answered his captain's call with an incredible over that yielded two wickets.

He dismissed Verreynne and Jono Bird in consecutive deliveries to swing the match's momentum back in the Dragons' favour.

Coming into the match, Peters had career-best figures of 3-28. After his outing against Western Province, his new figures were 3-22.

Moore's hard-fought 47 off 40, Valentine Kitime's 33 off 28 and Juan James's unbeaten 28 from 16 were not enough to catapult the visitors to victory.

WINNING TOTAL

Earlier in the day, Raynard van Tonder had played what reads like a normal knock from him.

The middle-order batter struck a single four on his way to an unbeaten 39 from 29 as he led the Dragons to 155.

Van Tonder, having gotten the measure of the pitch correct, focused more on manipulating gaps and running hard, converting ones into twos, instead of looking for the big shot.

His approach was evident in the Dragons' batting.

Their openers, Rubin Hermann (30 off 27) and Meeka-eel Prince (18 off 19) are normally the quickest scorers in the team.

Against Western Province, they started slow and ran hard as they tried to build a platform for the middle order to capitalise.

Lesiba Ngoepe (17 off 13) and Wihan Lubbe (14 off 8) were the most aggressive batters but did not last long in the middle on a surface that was not for free-flowing strokeplay.

The rest of the Dragons' batting line-up got an eye in but failed to reach the 20-run mark.

However, their contributions were enough to help the home side to a winning total.

Kyle Simmonds was Western Province's most successful bowler with two wickets for 22 runs in four overs.

His economy of 5.5 put him ahead of Mthiwekhaya Nabe and George Linde who also bagged a brace each, but conceded at a higher rate. Nabe went at 6.25, while Linde conceded 9.67 in three overs.

Dragons: Meeka-eel Prince, Rubin Hermann (wk), Lesiba Ngoepe, Wihan Lubbe, Raynard van Tonder, Senuran Muthusamy (c), Ruan de Swardt, Bamanye Xenxe, Caleb Seleka, Kerwin Mungroo, Gideon Peters.

Western Province: Tony de Zorzi, Eddie Moore, Jono Bird, Kyle Verreynne (c), Valentine Kitime, George Linde, Juan James, Kyle Simmonds, Beuran Hendricks, Wesley Bedja, Mthiwekhaya Nabe.