ROSS Veenstra struck twice in the first three overs of the day’s play to seemingly put Natal on the road to dominance. But mediocre support bowling and a defiant 71 not out from Praveen Amre helped Boland muster 91 runs for their last three wickets. Then Mark Bruyns and Doug Watson took off at the relatively rollicking rate of 3.5 runs to the over – as opposed to Boland’s overall 2.2 – in an opening stand of 88 which ended with the last ball before tea when Watson went for 44. But the home side again lost their way with Andrew Hudson, Dale Benkenstein and Jonty Rhodes all contributing to their own dismissals. However, Bruyns stood admirably firm to score his seventh first-class century before blowing it by having his middle stump uprooted by Henry Williams with what became the final ball of the day. Bruyns was at the crease for just more than four hours in which he faced 184 balls and hit 16 fours.