Bruised arms and muddy shirts and pants summed up the Eastern Storm’s brilliant fielding as they put their bodies on the line to restrict KZN Inland to 103 all out in the CSA women’s provincial T20 Cup on October 2 at Willowmoore Park.
Despite a loss to the same team a day prior in the one-day competition, Eastern Storm was more clinical on the field.
“Yesterday, we lost it in the field. Today, we told them they are better than this and should put their bodies on the line a bit more. They were willing to do it, fight and buy into our system,” said coach Adele van Eck.
The fielding was superb and the bowling was even better. Ashleigh van Wyk led the fight with three scalps while Alicia Smith-Harding Botha grabbed two wickets.
Alycia Rudolph, Karabo Magagula and Gabisile Nkosi chipped in with one scalp apiece.
“Today we focused on a new day and were more clinical in our decision-making. It seems to have paid off,” added van Eck.
Sent in to bat first, KZN didn’t mount any challenge as the wickets of openers Megan Wessels and Amahle Mwelase fell early through the bowling of van Wyk and Nkosi.
Captain Sarah Barber was the pick of the away side’s batters as her 41 off 31 balls guided her team to a respectable total. None of Barber’s remaining teammates scored over 10 runs. KZN was eventually dismissed for 103.
Eastern Storm’s innings began poorly as wickets fell like dominoes early on.
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Amanda Ngcobo grabbed the wickets of Lerato Langa, Smith-Harding Botha, Rudolph and Leandre Bentley to spark an early collapse with the Storm languishing at 7/4 inside the powerplay.
Joline Smit came to the crease and steadied her side’s innings, scoring 55 off 53 to drive up the run rate. The right-hander was supported by Thelma Makhubela (10) and van Wyk (17 off 12) to guide their team to a three-wicket win with 23 balls to spare.
Van Eck explained their fight back from the top order collapse exemplified the type of cricket they wanted to play.
“We back up our players to go out and attack from ball one. We know in playing that way, we’ll lose wickets at times. But we have a lot of depth in the change room. We have a fighting spirit. We never back away from the fight,” she said.
Barber commented that her team needs to be more clinical.
“We need to be on the ball all the time if we are going to start like we did today. Amanda Ngcobo started excellently. You cannot ask for more from an opening bowler.
“We just need someone to come after her and keep bringing the dots. Everyone needs to learn to switch without being told to when it comes to left and right-handers coming in to bat.
“The score was not a hard one to chase, quite easy considering the wicket. A few of our top-order batters gave away their wickets. We needed someone to hold the middle for us and then everyone to put their bodies on the line in the fielding,” she said.
Eastern Storm travels to Polokwane to face Limpopo on October 8 and 9.
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