MWP, Kimberley | Sunday 9.00pm.
Gauteng (640-5 decl) bt Griqualand West (400-4 decl & 147) by an innings and 93 runs
CLIVE Eksteen celebrated his first official match as captain of Gauteng by banking an unlikely victory as well as claiming the man-of-the match award.
Griquas resumed their second innings on five without loss, and were seemingly assured of a draw as the featherbed pitch prepared for this match had failed to deteriorate significantly.
However, after four overs there were suddenly more cats than pigeons when Mickey Arthur was trapped in front by fast bowler David Terbrugge followed by another three wickets tumbling without the score advancing from 10 runs.
That crash glued Griquas’ backs to the wall, and Eksteen applied the pressure himself with 39 overs of immaculate left-arm spin in which he took 5-54.
Griquas reached tea with nine wickets down, but 10 minutes into the extra half-hour the match which for three days had seemed doomed to grind to a stalemate was over in dramatic fashion.
The home side’s top six batsmen all failed to reach double figures, and it was left to the lower middle order to restore respectability to their team’s effort.
Former test allrounder Pat Symcox marshalled the first of Griquas’ worthy partnerships in scoring 24 in a seventh-wicket stand of 51 with Wendell Bossenger, whose 38 was Griquas’ top score.0
The biggest stand of the innings was mounted by Wayne Kidwell and Adri Swanepoel, who shared 53 for the last wicket. — MWP