A glorious unbeaten century by Matthew Breetzke and a record fifth-wicket partnership with Patrick Kruger enabled the Dafabet Warriors to claim a six-wicket victory over the Hollywoodbets Dolphins in their CSA One-Day Cup match at St George’s Park in Gqeberha on Friday night.
On a difficult, tacky pitch, Breetzke looked in a different class from every other batter as he timed the ball to perfection from the start to the finish of his innings.
Reigning champions the Dolphins won the toss and batted first, scoring a more than respectable 279 for seven in their 50 overs, thanks to half-centuries from Slade van Staden, Marques Ackerman and Hanu Viljoen.
But a key difference between the teams was that each of the Dolphins’ batters got out shortly after reaching 50, while Breetzke, with his unbeaten 121 in 106 balls (10x4s, 4x6s) batted right through the innings. He and Kruger (85* in 77 balls) were responsible for an unbroken fifth-wicket partnership of 174 in 143 balls, an outright Warriors’ record in List A cricket.
Neverthelss, for at least half the Warriors’ innings, the Dolphins looked in with a good shout. Jordan Hermann and Matthew de Villiers gave the home team a quick start, exploiting some loose bowling in the power play. But after Hermann played on to Ottneil Baartmen, and De Villiers was leg before sweeping at Jon-Jon Smuts, there was a brief collapse as JP King was run out and Sinethemba Qeshile was neatly stumped by Viljoen off Smuts.
At 109 for four in the 24th over, the smart money was on the Dolphins, particularly with Smuts bowling his left-arm spin immaculately, claiming 2/31 in his 10 overs.
Kruger enjoyed some luck and Breetzke was fortunate not to be given out leg before to Baartman early on, but once both batters had settled the Warriors began to boss the match. Breetzke's knock, in particular, was a thing of beauty as he played a succession of gorgeous drives and cuts through the off-side.
Another point of difference was that both teams were both about level just over the 200 mark with 10 overs to go and four wickets down. But whereas the Warriors bowled with good discipline to restrict the Dolphins to 72 runs, including just three fours and a single six, the Warriors swaggered their way to victory with 16 balls to spare.
Imran Tahir, making a late return to the Dolphins at the age of 46, had a bleak return to the franchise, conceding 75 runs in his 10 overs, including 21 off his last, the 46th of the innings. Pacemen Eathan Bosch and Baartman had their moments, but ultimately they had to give second best to Breetzke and Kruger.
Earlier, Dolphins’ openers Tshepang Dithole and Smuts departed early with an unbalanced Dithole clipping Kerwin Mungroo to square leg and Smuts being bowled through the gate by Kruger.
Van Staden and Ackerman repaired the early damage with a fluent third-wicket partnership of 63 before Van Staden, having struck a busy 52 in 54 balls, was caught at slip edging a drive off left-arm wristspinner Thomas Kaber.
Ackerman looked in excellent form, striking his ninth List A 50 before falling leg before to Aphiwe Mnyanda with a fine delivery that nipped back at the left-hander. The run-rate slowed considerably as Khaya Zondo and Viljoen attempted to build a platform for what they hoped would be a late onslaught with the 50 partnership coming up in 69 balls. Zondo’s 10 runs came in 25 balls although he did speed up, finally departing for 39 off 57 balls, skying a delivery from Wesley Bedja to wicketkeeper Qeshile.
Viljoen, who bravely managed a hamstring tweak, struck six fours and two sixes in his 74 off 73 balls, his sixth in the format, as the Dolphins struggled manfully to increase the run-rate. But, with the Dolphins having reached a promising 207 for four after 40 overs the Warriors did well to restrict their opponents to a further 72 off the last 10 overs.
The two most impressive bowlers for the Warriors were pacemen Kerwin Mungroo (2/42 off his full quota) and Mnyanda (2/42). Both men bowled a lot of slower balls on the turgid surface as the cricket tended towards the attritional for long periods, something that Breetzke and Kruger never allowed to happen when the Warriors batted.
Teams:
Dafabet Warriors: Jordan Hermann, Matthew de Villiers, Matthew Breetzke, JP King, Sinethemba Qeshile (wk), Patrick Kruger, Senuran Muthusamy (capt), Thomas Kaber, Aphiwe Mnyanda, Wesley Bedja, Kerwin Mungroo
Hollywoodbets Dolphins: Tshepang Dithole, JJ Smuts, Slade van Staden, Marques Ackerman, Khaya Zondo, Hanu Viljoen (wk), Eathan Bosch, Andile Simelane, Prenelan Subrayen (capt), Imran Tahir, Ottneil Baartman