Skipper Justin Gamble’s charges were looking to bounce back from their two-wicket defeat by Duduza, at Hosking Park, on Sunday, October 27, but the Benoni team were also looking for some sort of retribution following their mauling at the hands of CBC Old Boys, in Boksburg, on the same day.
A fine team effort from Northerns contributed to a massive 113-run success that not even a good start for United with the ball could prevent.
Dylan Rayner was the Brakpan-based team’s star turn with the cherry, and his excellent figures of 3/30 in 10 overs was one of the few highlights on the day for the away side.
Kevin Hinton achieved the next best figures, with 2/42 in his 10 overs.
Gamble won the coin toss and elected to bowl first on a pitch that is slowly starting to resemble something approaching Premier League standard.
The toss generally appears to be all-important in this early stage of the season, as pitches seem to assist the teams that bowl first, and so it proved to be when Northerns found themselves in heaps of trouble at 60 for four.
However, thanks to batsmen Ryan Pfeifer (52), skipper Kurt Francis (55) and Charl Steyn (42), the Benoni side were able to post a total of 233, with their last wicket falling off the final delivery of their allotted 50 overs.
When Northerns took to the field their pacemen were fired up and were seemingly taking wickets at will.
Aidan Justus, who was suffering with a muscle strain in his thigh, fought hard for his 42 and his ninth wicket partnership with Paul Amorim (16) frustrated the Northerns bowlers for some time before Amorim fell to a blinder of a delivery by spinner Levon Shields.
This was all that the team had to offer as they slumped to a third defeat of the season.
Team manager Des Gamble said that there are no excuses for the team’s performance.
“We failed with the bat once again and have to take this heavy loss on the chin,” he added.
“This is Premier League cricket and it’s clear that there is still a lot to learn for us.”
