The Northern Cape Heat secured a semi-final spot in the Cricket South Africa T20 knockout competition on Sunday by beating Limpopo Impalas.
THE NORTHERN Cape Heat secured a semi-final spot in the Cricket South Africa T20 knockout competition on Sunday by beating Limpopo Impalas in the only game they played in the three-day tournament.
Team manager Mbulelo Bosman said the NC Heat’s two fixtures for the Friday and Saturday were rained out. “We were scheduled to play three games that would have determined (who is placed) number one and number two, who in turn would have gone through to the semi-finals to be played this coming weekend.”
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The Northern Cape franchise had been scheduled to play on Friday against Eastern Cape Iinyathi and Six Gun Grill Garden Route Badgers (aka SWD) on Saturday. However, the rain put paid to that plan as no ball could be bowled in the soggy conditions.
“It went down to the wire on Sunday because no one played and everybody played on the last day. There were two games played on Sunday. Northern Cape Heat against Limpopo Impalas and Garden Route Badgers against Iinyathi.
“We beat Impalas as we scored 142/7 in 20 overs. Ernest Kemm was the NC Heat top scorer with 32 runs followed by a good knock by Bafana Mahlangu who made 27 runs. They (Impalas) got 128/4 in their 20 overs meaning we (NC Heat) beat them by 14 runs that afforded us a place in the semi-final.
“We will now play the Tuskers in the first semi-final. The other semi-final will feature SA Under-19 who will play against Iinyathi in the other semi-final.”
The next fixtures of the CSA T20 KO will be this coming weekend. The first semi-final will feature NC Heat at 10am against the Tuskers and the other semi-final between the Iinyati and SA Under-19 will be at 3pm, all matches will be played in East London.
Mark Charlton, NC Heat head coach posted on his social media timeline, “The Heat team has qualified for the T20 KO semi-finals to be hosted next week. The Heat beat the Limpopo Impalas to book their spot in the semi-finals.
“The team had a productive few days playing in the tournament and participating in a training camp in preparation for the First Class 4 Day series starting in two weeks time!”
The T20 KO fixtures
Saturday, October 8
Semi-final 1 (10am): NC Heat vs Tuskers
Semi-final 2 (3pm): Iinyati vs SA Under-19
Sunday, October 9
T20 KO Final: Winner (semi-final 1) vs Winner (semi-final 2)
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