NATAL captain Dale Benkenstein, deprived of a frontline spinner, had little choice but to ask Boland to bat after winning the toss on a well-grassed but harmless pitch in Durban on Thursday. Midway through the final session Boland were 186-2, having refused to offer at anything that wasn’t stump or body bound. The home side did not bowl badly, and Eldine Baptiste and Shaun Pollock performed like the classy pacemen they are. Boland ended 215 for 5 wickets.