Set 220 to win in 56 overs at 3,9 an over, the Border Bears beat the Highveld Strikers by seven wickets with 2,1 overs to spare in their SuperSport match at Mercedes-Benz Park on Monday in an absolutely thrilling finish.
The hero for Border was the diminutive opening batsman, man of the match Mark Bruyns, who scored a thrilling 96 and was unfortunate to just miss what would have been a well-deserved century.
He and number three batsman Steven Pope added 136 for the second wicket before Pope was run out off a suicidal run for 36 in the 47th over.
Enter Pieter Strydom, no stranger to such positions, with Border needing exactly 60 runs in less than 10 overs.
He immediately went on the attack and hit left-arm spinner Clive Eksteen, who until then had kept the Border batsmen very quiet, for three huge sixes, two over long-on and one over long-off that bounced off the main pavilion wall.
When Bruyns was bowled within sight of victory, hard-hitting Tyron Henderson with some big hits finished the match, hitting Eksteen over the mid-wicket boundary for six.
Border take 17,5 bonus points from the match while the Strikers will have to be content with 5,30.
Bruyns’s runs came off 164 balls and he hit 14 fours in a 236-minute stay at the crease.
”This win will give us plenty of confidence for our next match against North West,” said a jubilant Border captain, Justin Kreusch, at the helm for his first SuperSport match.
”We go there on a high while they’ll be playing their first match.
”Our bowlers got wickets and our batters got runs and it’s good to have a win under our belt,” Kreusch added.
Hats off, though, to Strikers’s captain, HD Ackerman, who gambled that his bowlers could take all 10 wickets. The pitch, however, played placidly and gave little help to his bowlers. Earlier on Monday the Strikers resumed at their overnight score of 147 for no loss, and both openers, Stephen Cook and Adam Bacher progressed to their centuries.
They added 238 for the first wicket before Cook skied Henderson to mid-off. His 109 was his second century and career-highest. He batted 314 minutes, faced 253 balls and hit 16 fours.
Bacher went on to a magnificent chanceless 138 off 293 balls, his 16th first-class century. Altogether he batted for 376 minutes and hit 16 fours and a six.
Thereafter there was a flurry of wickets as the Strikers’s batsmen perished as they pushed the score along.
Pope and Pieter Strydom grabbed seven wickets between them and there was some surprise when Ackerman declared at the fall of the eighth wicket, setting Border a most generous target. — Sapa