“Once again it was a team effort that produced the results.”
The Northern Cape Cricket (NCC) team spent a very profitable few days in Potchefstroom this past weekend when they won both their CSA Provincial Three-Day Cup fixture and the CSA Provincial One-Day Challenge match by convincing margins. The North West team were unable to cope with the intensity of their visitors who steamrolled them in both the red- and white ball formats.
Northern Cape needed just 19.5 overs at the crease to wrap up yesterday’s One-Day Challenge encounter after dismissing the hosts for a pedestrian136 in 45.5 overs. North West won the toss and elected to bat but must have regretted the decision after 10 overs having lost five wickets with only 24 runs on the board.
The top scorers for the hosts were Hero Janse van Rensburg and Katleho Leokaoke with 24 runs each while the pick of the NCC bowers was Beyers Swanepoel with 3/21 from 8 overs. Patrick Kruger, Aubrey Swanepoel, Luvuyo Adam and Jacques Snyman each took one wicket.
Thanks to a good opener’s score of 45 from Patrick Kruger and a blistering 60 not out from Jacques Snyman from just 37 balls the NCC team raced to 139/2 to collect five points in a great eight-wicket win.
Yesterday’s win was built on the visitors’ impressive win in the three-dayer where NCC beat North West by an innings and 99 runs on Saturday.
Resuming on their overnight score of 165/2, NCC powered on to a massive 409/5 declared, with Ernest Kemm’s 150 not out and Garnett Tarr’s undefeated 69 taking the fight out of the hosts’ attack. Handy contributions by Obus Pienaar (42) and skipper Aubrey Swanepoel (41) kept the scoreboard ticking. For the hosts, Jon Hinrichsen was their most successful bowler taking 4/67 in 22 overs.
North West were eventually dismissed for 191 in just 58 overs on the final day in what must have been a demoralising innings defeat. Kagiso Rapulana was North West’s top scorer on 47 while Yassar Cook (32), Chad Classen (31 not out), and skipper Brady Barends and Hinrichsen (24 each) made starts but could not kick on.
The chief destroyer for the visitors was Swanepoel with 7/50 runs from 15 overs, to wrap up the match.
After the match, an elated head coach JP Triegaardt told the DFA that they didn’t try to do anything different. They just executed their normal skills well. “(We did) nothing special,” he said. “We are playing really good cricket at the moment and if we can look after our skills and execute them better than the opposition – with the bat and ball – then we will find ourselves on the winning side.
“Once again it was a team effort that produced the results.”
For their efforts, NCC collected 24.34 points in the three-day match and North West only managed two.
