DAY 3: Lions and Dragons eye victory, big win for Province, Tuskers show grit
Codi Yusuf registered his third first-class four-wicket haul as he helped the DP World Lions take control whilst Duan Jansen and Gideon Peters put the North West Dragons in control; Kyle Simmonds, returned career-best figures for Province - this and more on the third day of the CSA 4-Day Series.
LIONS ON THE BRINK OF VICTORY AFTER DAY THREE
The DP World Lions had victory in their grasp when the umpires called time on day three of their CSA 4-day Challenge match against the Multiply Titans at SuperSport Park, Centurion, on Friday.
At stumps, the visitors were on 113 for three. They need 50 runs to win with seven wickets in hand.
The Lions had the Proteas duo of Ryan Rickelton (39 off 78) and Wiaan Mulder at the crease.
The Wanderers-based outfit has dominated the Jukskei Derby, bundling out the hosts for 227 in their first innings.
In reply, they chalked a 293-run total, before bowling out the Titans for 226 in their second innings on day three.
Sibonelo Makhanya was one of the two only batters for the home side who played innings of substance.
YUSUF SINKS TITANS
The Titans captain, standing in for Neil Brand, carved 11 fours on his way to an outstanding 69 off 102 deliveries.
The 27-year-old seemed to be playing on a different surface and did encounter the same troubles as his teammates.
The other batter who did reasonably well was Joshua van Heerden. The opener held firm while the Titans lost top-order wickets at regular intervals. The 25-year-old was unlucky to miss out on an eighth first-class half-century by three runs.
Besides those two, the rest of the Titans' batting order folded under the assault from Lions bowlers, led by Codi Yusuf.
The 25-year-old pacer registered his third first-class four-wicket haul to complement Lutho Sipamla's four-for in the first innings.
Yusuf finished the innings with four wickets for 81 runs in 21 overs. He ended the match with five wickets for 138 in 38 overs.
Lutho Sipamla and Delano Potgieter also finished the match with five wickets each. Sipamla with five wickets for 94 runs in 27.2 overs, while Potgieter has five for 84 runs in 20 overs.
MULTIPLY TITANS: Sibonelo Makhanya (c), Matthew Kleinveldt, Joshua van Heerden, Musa Twala, Dewald Brevis, Donovan Ferreira, Rivaldo Moonsamy (wk), Corbin Bosch, Dayyaan Galiem, Junior Dala, Jack Lees.
DP WORLD LIONS: Joshua Richards, Dominic Hendricks (c), Ryan Rickelton (wk), Wandile Makwetu, Marco van Biljon, Mitchell van Buuren, Wiaan Mulder, Delano Potgieter, Malusi Siboto, Lutho Sipamla, Codi Yusuf.
SELEKA EDGES DRAGONS CLOSER TO VICTORY OVER ROCKS
Caleb Seleka spun a web around the Gbets Rocks' batters to help the North West Dragons reduce the home team to 136 for seven in their CSA 4-day Challenge match at Eurolux Boland Park in Paarl.
The Rocks trail the visitors by 95 runs with three wickets in hand.
At stumps, the Rocks had Michael Copeland (34 off 48) and Glenton Stuurman (5 from 8) at the crease.
Seleka was in outstanding form, grabbing three wickets in the Rocks' first innings to help the Dragons restrict the hosts to 253 in their reply to the visitors' first innings tally of 484.
Shaun Von Berg was the only batter from the home side to reach 50. The experienced all-rounder scored a fighting 62 off 100 in an innings that featured the Rocks' only six of the innings.
After Von Berg, the only other substantial innings was from Michael Copeland who scored 40 off 80 deliveries. Other than that, no other batter crossed the 30-run mark.
Realising that there was an opportunity to race to a victory, their second red ball win of the season,
Dragons captain Wihan Lubbe asked the Rocks to follow-on. His bowlers did not disappoint. Seleka led the charge with three wickets after Gideon Peters and Duan Jansen had laid the foundation with the quick dismissals of Pieter and Janneman Malan.
Stiaan van Zyl (31) and Aviwe Mgijima (41) tried to put up a resistance with a 61-run third-wicket stand, the Rocks' highest partnership in the innings, but to no avail.
At stumps, Seleka had three wickets for 29 runs in 11 overs in the innings. He has a better economy rate than Gideon Peters, who also bagged three wickets.
Peters's scalps came at the cost of 32 runs in nine overs for an economy of 3.56, compared to Seleka's economy of 2.64.
GBETS ROCKS: Janneman Malan, Pieter Malan (c), Stiaan van Zyl, Aviwe Mgijima, Michael Copeland, Nathan Engelbrecht, Shaun von Berg, Hardus Viljoen, Glenton Stuurman, Siyabonga Mahima, Jevano Baron.
NORTH WEST DRAGONS: Lesego Senokwane, Grant Mokoena, Lesiba Ngoepe, Rubin Hermann, Migael Pretorius, Tahir Isaacs, Duan Jansen, Bamanye Xenxe, Caleb Seleka, Gideon Peters.
SIMMONDS LEADS PROVINCE TO HUGE WIN OVER SORRY DOLPHINS
Western Province’s left-arm spinner, Kyle Simmonds, returned career-best figures of 7/39 as Province smashed a feeble Hollywoodbets Dolphins by an innings and 259 runs in their final CSA 4-Day Series pool match at Newlands in Cape Town on Friday to earn themselves a place in next week’s final.
It was the second heaviest defeat in terms of an innings, in franchise history.
CSA 4-DAY SERIES Final here we come!!🔥👏🏏😍
— Western Province Men (@WP_Blitz) February 23, 2024
MATCH RESULT | We won by an innings and 259 runs.
Hollywoodbets Dolphins 131 all out (37.3).
Smuts (44*). Ackerman 38.
Simmonds 7/39, Burger 2/30. #WPcricket #BoysInBlue💙 #4DaySeries #WozaNawe #WSBWP🧡 pic.twitter.com/6rg0nKw4t2
Province’s opponents will only be known tomorrow after the result becomes known of the Jukskei derby between the Titans and the Lions at Centurion.
The home team, needing a win and plenty of bonus points, performed both functions with ease.
They began by earning six batting bonus points by racking up 592 for six declared in their first innings.
They also gained their full complement of four bowling points, plus 16 for the win, for a grand total of 26, more than enough to see them surge past the Dolphins who led them by 11 before the Newlands match started.
It was a richly deserved success for the home team against a Dolphins’ side who seemed to play without plan, purpose or backbone.
Province, who played with notable intensity, compiled a huge first innings total of 592 for six in 148.4 overs, including centuries from Daniel Smith, Gavin Kaplan and Kyle Verreynne, while the Dolphins’ batters were not able to record a single half-century between them as they were dismissed for 202 in 55.1 overs and 131 in 37.4 overs.
Their last 15 wickets fell on the third day for just 158 runs as they effectively hauled out the white flag.
DISASTROUS MORNING
None of this should take anything away from a Province team under the astute leadership of Verrynne who knew exactly what they had to do after he had won the toss and elected to bat first on a superb pitch for batting.
That it remained so to the end is no compliment to the Dolphins’ batters who invariably contrived to give their precious wickets away with a succession of poor shots.
It was good to see, however, that 35-year-old Jon-Jon Smuts finished unbeaten on 44 in 60 balls in the Dolphins’ second innings, the longest stay in terms of balls faced by the visitors in both innings.
Smuts, a proud man, would not have wished to have been dragged down by the overall mediocrity of his teammates over the last three days.
The Dolphins had a particularly disastrous morning session. Resuming on their overnight score of 175 for five, they subsided meekly, losing their last five wickets for 27 runs in 14.1 overs.
For Province, left-arm pace bowler Beuran Hendricks was the star performer, claiming 4/22 in 13 overs while Nandre Burger (3-66), Simmonds (2-36) and medium-pacer Onke Nyaku (1-21) cleared out the rest of the debris.
Smuts was the first to go; having driven Hendricks for four he then edged him to wicketkeeper Verreyne. Prenelan Subrayen went the same way two balls later. That, effectively, was that apart from some defiance from Eathan Bosch who struck six fours in his 31 in 57 balls. The visitors’ first innings lasted just 55.1 overs compared to Province’s epic stay of 148.4 overs.
Province then got rid of the Dolphins’ openers at the second time of asking, with Nandre Burger getting Tshepang Dithole fending to gully while Sarel Erwee edged to slip off Beuran Hendricks.
That made the score 11/2. Marques Ackerman and Bryce Parsons survived to lunch with the Dolphins on 25 for two – still 365 runs in the red with a maximum of five sessions left – a hopeless position.
The procession continued after lunch.
Parsons edged Simmonds tamely to slip for the second time in the match, Ackerman played on to Simmonds after another bright cameo (38 in 52 balls) and then the left-armer sliced through the rest of the lineup – bar Smuts – with consummate ease. His final figures of 15.4-4-39-7 were truly remarkable on a pitch that offered him relatively little.
Putting in Worldly performances this week.🏏😍
— Western Province Men (@WP_Blitz) February 23, 2024
It was what was needed to get us into the final of the CSA 4-Day Series.
Daniel Smith 106
Gavin Kaplan 173
Kyle Verreynne 135
Kyle Simmonds 7/39#WPcricket #BoysInBlue💙 #4DaySeries #WozaNawe #WSBWP🧡 pic.twitter.com/Nqt3sGSigW
WESTERN PROVINCE: Kyle Verreynne (capt, wk), Beuran Hendricks, Daniel SmiGaKaplan, Kyle Simmonds, Mohammad Vallie, Nandre Burger, Onke Nyaku, Tony de Zorzi, Valentine Kitme, Wesley Bedja
HOLLYWOODBETS DOLPHINS: Sarel Erwee (capt), Tshepang Dithole (wk), Andile Simelane, Bryce Parsons, Eathan Bosch, Jason Smith, Jon-Jon Smuts, Marques Ackerman, Okuhle Cele, Ottniel Baartman, Prenelan Subrayen
TUSKERS SHOW GRIT IN BATTLE AGAINST DOMINANT WARRIORS
The AET Tuskers fought a doughty, attritional battle to avoid defeat on the third day of their CSA 4-Day Series match against the Dafabet Warriors at the City Oval in Pietermaritzburg on Friday.
Facing an overwhelming first innings total of 517 for three by the Warriors that included Tristan Stubbs’ first triple-century and a franchise record partnership of 473 for the third wicket with Matthew Breetzke (188), the Tuskers ground their way to 167 for four in 54 overs before bad light cut short play.
Their effort was led by veteran Michael Erlank’s 35th first-class fifty (to go with 11 centuries) as the 33-year-old kept his team afloat, striking 10 fours in his unbeaten 52.
The Tuskers still have a huge deficit of 350, but, with just three sessions (at best) to play, the Warriors will have to do something special on this City Oval surface to squeeze out victory on Saturday.
With the weather conditions significantly reducing playing time – only 29 overs were possible on Thursday because of bad light and play only started at 12.30pm today because overnight rain had soaked the outfield – a draw looks the likeliest result on a slow, low pitch that makes positive cricket difficult.
When play finally got under way in bright sunshine in the afternoon, Warriors’ paceman Renaldo Mayer made the early breakthrough when he trapped Yaseen Valli leg before with an inswinging yorker, despite the batsman’s hint to the umpire that he might have got some bat on it.
There followed a partnership of 56 for the second wicket between opener Kagiso Rapulana and Cameron Shekleton before Rapulana was leg before on the back foot to Siya Simetu.
The dismissal was so plumb that Rapulana walked before the umpire gave his decision.
Shekleton then joined up with Michael Erlank for a partnership of exactly 50 before Shekleton, on 49, was bowled – much to his chagrin – by a delivery from paceman Siya Plaatjie that kept very low. He had struck seven fours in his 88-ball innings.
Daelen Fynn was the next to go, caught at slip by a tumbling Patrick Kruger after his mishit reverse-sweep off Rudi Second lobbed to him.
The light then started to fade soon after Malcolm Nofal joined Erlank and the players were soon forced to leave the field.
TUSKERS: Cameron Shekleton; Daelen Fynn; Jared Meiring; Kagiso Rapulana; Keith Dudgeon; Malcolm Nofal; Michael Erlank (c); Mondli Khumalo; Ntando Zuma (wk); Smangaliso Nhlebela; Yaseen Valli
WARRIORS: Beyers Swanepoel; Jiveshan Pillay; Jordan Hermann; Matthew Breetzke (c); Patrick Kruger; Renaldo Meyer; Rudi Second; Sinethemba Qeshile; Siya Plaatjie; Siya Simetu; Tristan Stubbs
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