A thrilling cameo by Duan Jansen and disciplined bowling by the North West Dragons enabled them to beat the ITEC Knights by 22 runs in their last CSA T20 Challenge match on Tuesday.
The win, their second of the competition, took the Dragons off the foot of the table and placed the semifinal hopes of the Knights in jeopardy.
The Knights needed a win to guarantee a semifinal place, but were unable to pull it off, being dismissed for 132 in 16.4 overs, chasing the Dragons’ total of 154 for six. Thus, a simple victory for the DP World Lions in their final match against the Gbets Rocks would enable the Johannesburg team to sneak into the semis at the expense of the Knights.
For most of their innings, the Knights were struggling against a combination of factors as black clouds, high winds and lightning closed in. They had to decide whether to keep up with the required Duckworth-Lewis-Stern rate of scoring, or ignore the weather and try to play normally. In the end they lost their compass entirely and the result was a steady loss of wickets.
The Knights didn’t help themselves with the early runout of their most in-form batsman, Gihahn Cloete (9), who was sold down the river by his partner Jacques Snyman, resulting in an easy runout for the bowler, Senuran Muthusamy.
Snyman tried to make up for his mistake with some typically aggressive shots, but he was brilliantly caught at deep square leg by Wesley Marshall off paceman Renaldo Meyer who went on to pick up 3-26 in his four overs, a career-best return. Legspinner Caleb Seleka also grabbed three at a cost of just 13 runs – also a career-best for the young wrist-spinner – as the innings folded.
Pite van Biljon, playing in his 100th T20 match, showed some stubborn resistance with 25 in 27 balls but it was Migael Pretorius who offered late hope for the Knights with some brutal hitting, striking 36 in 15 balls. But his defiance ended when, after hitting Muthusamy for two sixes and a four in the 17th over, he holed out to Hardus Coetzer on the long-off boundary.
Earlier, Jansen struck a blistering 39 in 15 balls to rescue the North West Dragons' innings from the doldrums. Jansen’s big hitting enabled the Dragons to take 37 off the 18th and 19th overs from Pretorius and Aubrey Swanepoel to extend their final total to a respectable 154 for six when a total of about 130 looked on the cards.
Jansen struck three sixes and three fours in his short innings before holing out in the final over. He and Delano Potgieter added 53 off 23 balls for the sixth wicket with Jansen getting 39 of them.
Further up the order only Heino Kuhn, who struck his 16th career T20 half-century, played with any conviction on the same pitch where a world-record 501 runs had been compiled by the Momentum Multiply Titans and Knights the previous day. The pitch seemed much slower on Tuesday, but the Dragons’ batsmen certainly didn’t help themselves with a largely lacklustre display until Jansen’s fiery late intervention which proved to be the difference between the sides.
For the Knights, Gerald Coetzee, who bowled with good pace, was the most successful bowler with 2-24 from his four overs.
North West Dragons: Wesley Marshall, Grant Mokoena, Heino Kuhn, Khanya Cotani, Senuran Muthusamy, Delano Potgieter, Duan Jansen, Hardus Coetzer, Renaldo Meyer, Caleb Seleka, Lwandiswa Zuma
ITEC Knights: Gihahn Cloete, Jacques Snyman, Raynard van Tonder, Aubrey Swanepoel, Patrick Kruger, Pite van Biljon, Orapeleng Motlhoaring, Isaac Dikgale, Gerald Coetzee, Migael Pretorius, Mbulelo Budaza