Easterns ends 16-year wait for provincial silverware

It’s been a long wait for the Eastern Cricket Union’s senior provincial men’s side to get their hands on a trophy.

In fact, it’s been a whole 16 years since an Easterns team, boasting the likes of Darryl Cullinan, Zander de Bruyn and Morne Morkel, lifted the SuperSport Shield in the 2003/2004 season.

On April 7, the side, coached by Richard das Neves and skippered by Grant Thomson, fittingly defeated fellow Titans franchise side Northerns at SuperSport Park in Centurion by two wickets to end the trophy drought and claim the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Provincial One-Day Challenge title.

A crucial 24-run, ninth-wicket stand between Imran Manack and Dyllan Matthews helped Easterns secure the win on Sunday.

The pair came together with the visitors down and out at 253/8, chasing a target of 277, but they managed to chip away at the total and eventually get the men from Willowmoore Park over the line with 19 balls to spare.

Their unbeaten partnership provided the perfect end for Easterns, although there were plenty other performances of significance at SuperSport Park.

There were two wickets each for Matthew Arnold (2/48), Kofi Apea-Adu (2/49) and Manack (2/50).

Wesley Marshall gave Easterns a solid early start with his 61 runs off 64 balls (seven fours and two sixes), but they then lost their way.

Even though Sizwe Masondo (54 off 58 balls, six fours) also accumulated a half century, the regular strikes of Gregory Mahlokwana (3/40) and Ruben Trumpelmann (3/71) gave the home side a big advantage.

That was until Matthews (14) and Manack (8) got together for their short, but vital stand that took the Benoni-based side to the title.

“I am very chuffed and happy with the performance of the side over the whole season,” said their delighted Easterns head coach das Neves.

“The guys have put in the hard yards and it is very rewarding to finish off with a trophy.

“It’s been a tough two years since I arrived, both on and off the field.

“We had to implement quite a few changes, but I think the majority of the side has bought into the culture change and that has been rewarded with a trophy at the end of the two-year cycle.

“It’s been quite a good balance between our younger Easterns players and our more experienced players who have been key contributors to the side.

“The final was probably closer than it should have been.

“We were happy to restrict them to 276 with the bat as we felt that it was about a 320-run wicket.

“With the bat, we just kept losing soft wickets that kept them in the game.

“In the end, we knew that if it became a close game we had the experience of winning those tight games as it is pretty much how our whole one-day campaign has gone.

“Out of 10 round-robin games, about seven or eight of them went to the final over.

“In one or two of the matches we were on the wrong side of the result, but in most of them we were on the right side.”

Although the team tasted success in the white ball version of the game, they could only muster a sixth place overall in the CSA Three-Day Cup.

“In the red ball game we blew hot and cold,” said das Neves.

“We were a little unlucky in one or two games, but sixth place is our joint-best placing over the last eight or nine years.

“We achieved that position last season as well.

“With the team we had, we should have probably performed a bit better.

“We had possibly the best bowling line-up in the country and it showed when we played teams away from home.

“Teams prepared flat wickets against us, so we didn’t get any winning results away from home.”

The coach believes the one-day competition victory bodes well for the future of the Eastern Cricket Union.

“We will use this as a catapult to push the union forward and to get sustained success,” he said.

“It goes a lot deeper than just the senior provincial side.

“We have to look into the junior structures and how we are producing our players so we don’t have to necessarily look to buy players from outside to sustain the success.”

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