The Eagles beat the Dolphins by eight runs with just four balls to spare in a nail-biting Standard Bank Cup cricket match in Bloemfontein on Wednesday night.
Man-of-the-match Johan van der Wath and Roger Telemachus took three wickets apiece and helped the home team to defend their small score.
The win took the Eagles to the top of the log in the series.
Excellent bowling in severe weather by medium-pacer Zahir Abrahim restricted the Eagles to a mere 148 runs in their innings. Abrahim removed four of the home team’s batsmen for only 15 runs. It was his best bowling of his career and also eclipsed Andrew Tweedie’s best bowling figures for the Dolphins.
Tweedie took 4/41 runs on two occasions last season.
After an hour’s play, rain forced the players from the field for an hour. A strong wind helped to keep the rain away for the rest of the game and made playing conditions a little difficult.
Abrahim struck with his first ball, when stand-in wicketkeeper Doug Watson caught Van der Wath, who was facing his first ball, off a great delivery. A ball earlier, Nantie Hayward had dismissed Eagles captain Morne van Wyk.
Loots Bosman scored his 15th half-century in limited-overs cricket. He anchored the Eagles innings with his 59 runs, before he was caught by Hashim Amla off the bowling of Abrahim. Bosman is yet to score a century in this version of the game.
Ahmed Amla, brother of Hashim, played an excellent innings for the Dolphins and brought them within a whisker of winning the match. He stood firm for his 59 runs.
Telemachus (3/33) made big-hitting Lance Klusener drag one on to his wickets and this effectively put an end to the Dolphins’ challenge. Van der Wath (3/24) then closed it out by removing Amla from the crease. — Sapa