Two of the six scheduled Africa T20 Cup matches for the weekend were called off due to the wet weather on Saturday, September 5.
The fixtures that were played (Easterns versus Western Province on a chilly Friday night, Northerns versus Western Province on Saturday night and the doubleheader of Western Province versus Zimbabwe President’s XI and Easterns versus Northerns on Sunday) allowed for a winner of Pool A to be established, which turned out to be Northerns, who advance to the semi-finals at the start of October.
After Easterns were steered home to a four-wicket win (with four deliveries remaining) over Western Province on Friday night, courtesy of a composed 37 runs off 27 balls by Grant Thomson in the chase, it was all set up for a “Battle of the Titans” (as the official Cricket South Africa Twitter page dubbed it) between the hosts and Northerns, on Sunday.
This followed a Saturday six-wicket win over Zimbabwe for Northerns (a team loaded with experienced franchise and international campaigners such as Albie Morkel and Dean Elgar).
Zimbabwe bagged their first win of the tournament, over Western Province by eight wickets, in the first T20 on Sunday.
All eyes, however, turned to the final clash of the weekend, between Easterns and Northerns, and the handful of fans within the stadium was treated to a nail-biting affair.
The big-hitting, left-handed opening pair of Quinton de Kock and Wesley Coulentianos could not get the home team off to the desired start with the bat and, when their wickets fell (coinciding with the fall of number three bat Mangaliso Mosehle) it was again left to Thomson to help Easterns push on.
The hero of Friday night formed a 57-run partnership with number five Thando Bula (30 not out), as he scored 47 off 40 deliveries in a knock that included three fours and two sixes, before he was caught out off the bowling of Morkel.
Johan “Kierie” Fourie scored 19 off 12 balls to set Easterns a score of 126 in the first 20 overs.
The overhead conditions had seemingly played a role in the low-scoring encounters and the task at hand was not as straightforward as it may have appeared for Northerns.
They were made to work extremely hard in the chase, as the Easterns bowlers of Vincent Moore, Junior Dala, Tabraiz Shamsi (two wickets) and Clayton August each got among the wickets.
The stand-out figures belonged to August (the skipper of the Actonville Spurs Premier XI), with 1/13 in his allotted four overs, at an economy rate of 3.25.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Heinrich Klaasen’s brilliant innings of 72 runs off just 39 balls guided his team to a three-wicket victory, with just three balls remaining.
The final over was not without its drama, though, as his partner, Ruben Claassen, was run out off a wide and then Klaasen nearly got run out, trying to get back on strike.
CLICK HERE for a GALLERY from this match.
