Defending champions the Diamond Eagles defeated the Dolphins by 52 runs in a high-scoring MTN Domestic Championship cricket fixture played at the De Beers Diamond Oval, Kimberley, on Sunday.
The match was a personal triumph for the man of the Match, Eagles opener and wicketkeeper Morne van Wyk, who scored a chanceless, limited-overs career-best 160 not out and then had a hand in four dismissals with the gloves.
Asked to bat first under cloudless Northern Cape skies, Eagles openers Van Wyk and Jonathan Beukes set the trend for the innings by putting on 87 for the first wicket in 67 minutes.
Van Wyk was brilliant on the day and when joined by Ryan Bailey on 142/3, there was no stopping the duo as they added a record 147 runs in their unbroken fourth-wicket partnership in only 67 minutes.
Van Wyk was the dominant partner with his 160 not out coming off only 136 balls in 182 minutes. His magnificent display of aggressive batting included two sixes and 24 fours. He has now scored 405 runs in six innings in this season’s competition — two of these innings being undefeated hundreds.
Bailey contributed a 52-ball 54 not out.
The Eagles’ total of 289/3 surpassed the team’s previous highest total of 277/5 against the Warriors in Port Elizabeth in the 2004/05 season. Medium-pacer Lance Klusener was the best of the Dolphins bowlers with 1/35 in nine overs.
The Dolphins’ openers, left-hander Imraan Khan (76 — 64b, 11×4, 1×6) and Doug Watson (43), began their team’s reply in outstanding fashion, putting on a record-breaking 113 runs for the first wicket in 72 minutes.
However, the recall of first-change bowler Roger Telemachus to the bowling attack sparked a mini collapse from which the visitors never recovered.
In spite of a cameo Lance Klusener innings of 53 not out (41b, 49m,4×4, 6×3), the former Proteas player quite literally ran out of batting partners as the Dolphins succumbed to 237 all out.
Telemachus, who took 4/23 in his second spell, finished with 4/43 in seven overs. Returning after an injury break, skipper left-arm spinner Nicky Boje took 2/54 — 22 of these runs coming off his ninth and last over.
Titans cruise to victory
The Titans cruised to a seven-wicket victory over the Highveld Lions in their MTN Domestic Championship limited-overs match at Supersport Park on Sunday.
Chasing the modest target of 165 to win, the home side achieved this with 23 overs and four balls in hand, for the loss of just three wickets.
Man-of-the-match Gulam Bodi put on a superb 96 off 65 deliveries. He and Heino Kuhn put on 118 runs for the first wicket before Kuhn was out lbw to Eugene Moleon for 40.
Bodi was just four runs short of his fourth limited-overs century, and two runs short of hitting the winning runs, when he was caught behind by Matthew Harris off Garnett Kruger. He had hit 10 boundaries and six sixes.
Johann Myburgh was out off the very next ball, lbw to Kruger for a duck. Faarhaan Behardien survived the hat-trick ball, but Francois du Plessis secured the victory two balls later with a boundary. He was not out on 23.
The Titans’ 150 came up off 123 balls, and included 18 fours and six sixes.
Earlier, the Lions were all out for 164 in the 42nd over. At one stage, the Lions, who won the derby against the Titans at the Wanderers two weeks earlier, were reeling on 21 for the loss of five wickets. A partnership of 85 between Vaughn van Jaarsveld and Tyron Henderson provided some respectability to the Lions’ innings.
Van Jaarsveld was clean-bowled by Morne Morkel for 37, and Henderson made 63 before he was caught by Brendon Reddy off Faarhaan Behardien.
Alfonso Thomas finished with the excellent bowling figures of two for five off seven overs, and Francois du Plessis took three wickets for 39 runs off seven overs and three balls.
Their decisive victory gave the Titans a very valuable bonus point. — Sapa