Batsmen welcome time in the middle
Following a convincing victory over rivals CBC Old Boys on Sunday, October 25, Benoni Northerns Cricket Club’s (BNCC) Premier XI were buoyed with confidence heading into their home clash with Tembisa, on Sunday, November 1.
This Eastern Premier League encounter was the fifth consecutive match played by BNCC on home turf in the opening five weeks of the 2015/2016 campaign.
Skipper Kurt Francis will be pleased that the batting order had the opportunity to work on their form out in the middle, ahead of their first away match of the season against another bitter rival Kempton Park, on Sunday, November 8.
Batting first it was opening batsman Rhenier Jordaan who led the charge with willow in hand as Northerns powered to a score of 344/9 in their 50 overs.
He went hard at the opposition bowlers and blitzed his way to the club’s first century of the season, with 119 runs.
After the early loss of his opening partner, Vaughn Humphrey, Jordaan established an excellent partnership with number three batsman Shane Nel, who looked good for his 61 runs.
Other noteworthy scores came from Stefano di Bartolomeo (38), Charl Steyn (35) and Werner van Lingen (29).
The Tembisan batsmen came out with the motive to bat well into the late 40 overs and they did just that (they had also lost three overs due to a slow over rate while in the field).
Although they didn’t quite generate the same aggression as their opponents did with the bat they forced the Northerns players to spend a lot of time in the field as they ended their 47-over innings with a score of 209/7.
This ensured a 135-run bonus point victory for BNCC.
- Meanwhile, across the road, on the BNCC B-field, skipper Jaco Kruger’s Promotion XI hosted Kempton Park in a match that will be remembered for sub-standard umpire decisions that affected both teams, rather than for the final result, which went the way of Kempton.
Northerns bowled well and, with some questionable decisions by the officials, managed to bowl out their visitors for 105 in 34.2 overs.
Tian van der Walt’s off-spin got him figures of 3/10 in 10 overs, Kruger chalked up 2/31 in nine overs and Andrew Smith 2/8 in six overs.
When BNCC went in to bat the poor decisions continued and they were bowled out for 64 in 17.2 overs.
“Both captains agreed that this was not the way we wanted to play the game,” said Kruger.
“We will take the frustration and determination into the last couple of weeks of the first half of the season and bounce back even stronger away to Springs Old Boys this week.”
