The Seeff North West Dragons enjoyed their time in the windy city last weekend with two gutsy performances that were just as strong as the famous Port Elizabeth breeze.
It was definitely not a breeze for North West, however, as they took on a strong and determined Eastern Province side in a Sunfoil Three-Day Cup from 9-11 March and CSA One-Day Challenge match on 12 March respectively.
The Dragons won the three-day match by a mere two wickets and this victory was largely thanks to a brilliant team effort during the match. Brady Barends was the standout bowler with figures of 4/49 in Eastern Province’s first innings. This restricted EP to 258 all out. NW struggled in reply as Luvuyo Adam picked up brilliant figures of 6/87. It was only a mesmerising 141 from Richardt Frenz and 78 from Wihan Lubbe that took the Dragons to 279 all out.
This 21 run lead seemed to make all the difference, especially when EP could only manage 220 in the second innings. Johannes Diseko with 5/63 was the chief destroyer for the Dragons as his left arm spin bowling gripped and turned on the St. George’s Park pitch. In the second innings, it was a case of cometh the hour cometh the captain for the Dragons as Kagiso Rapulana hit a match-winning 79 to steer his side to the two-wicket victory.
In the end, lower order batsmen, Brady Barends and Siviwe Gidana took the Dragons home to a nervy victory in what was a hotly-contested three-day match. On Sunday, the teams put on their limited overs’ colours and swapped the red ball for a white variant in a rain-reduced 26 over match which NW won by 23 runs.
The Dragons batted first and amassed 166/6 with André Malan (53) and Wihan Lubbe (51) top scoring. EP’s Edward Moore made a fight of it with a valiant 50 but the rest of the EP batsmen did not come to the party. Ayavuya Myoli impressed with his line and length to take 3/18 while Brady Barends chipped in with 2/18. EP could only manage 143 as the Dragons made it two out of two to leave the friendly city with Cheshire cat smiles.
