Northerns beat North West in last ball nail-biter

The North West Dragons started their Africa T20 Cup campaign on a losing note against Northerns with a nervous three run loss in a close Pool B match tonight at Senwes Park in Potchefstroom.

The Dragons needed 13 runs from the final over but Migael Pretorius bowled out Andre Malan with the final ball of the innings as Malan needed to hit four runs for the win.

It was a sad end to North West’s chase as they fell at the final hurdle seemingly in control of proceedings for the majority of the innings.

A solid partnership from Malan (38) and captain Jonty Rapulana (29) was not enough as the away side’s spinners took the game from North West’s hands.

Ruben Claassen (1/26) and Thomas Kaber (2/24) were the best bowlers for Northerns on the night.

An effective and concise display of spin bowling placed the game in North West’s hands earlier as they took Northerns from 69/0 to 118/7 in the space of 10 overs.

Northerns started well with the bat, capitalising on first use of the pitch with a 69-run opening stand between Andrea Agathangelou and Jiveshan Pillay.

North West Dragons needed to break the partnership badly and the hero came in the form of left arm spinner Johannes Diseko who rattled Northerns with tight spin bowling.

Diseko was the thorn in Northerns flesh as the Ikageng bowler got the opening wicket of Agathangelou, before tearing through the top order to dismiss Tony de Zorzi (16) and Rivaldo Moonsamy in quick succession. Ruan Haasbroek affected two of these wickets with sharp stumpings.

Wihan Lubbe (3/20) also chipped in with his off spinner as he picked up the wickets of Pillay (34) and Thomas Kaber (8) to leave Northerns on 109/5.

Bjorn Fortuin and Marques Ackerman then also got into the wicket taking act as they reduced the visitors to 118/7.

Northerns managed to add a few runs in the latter overs to finish on 145/8 after Corbin Bosch (son of former Protea, Tertius Bosch) hit Aya Myoli’s final ball of the innings for six – still North West had done brilliantly to peg back the run rate.

North West Dragons did not have the best start with the bat as Wihan Lubbe departed for 1 courtesy of Claassen’s bowling. Ackerman and Janneman Malan though stabilised the innings with a measured 47 run partnership.

These two have batted together numerous times for the Dragons and their NWU-Pukke club and this showed in the middle under the floodlit sky.

Thomas Kaber then struck for Northerns as he dismissed Ackerman after the latter went big only to be caught at long on.

This brought Janneman’s brother Andre to the crease and together they could only add 10 runs to the total as Kaber weaved his magic to bowl Janneman Malan for 28 and put the Dragons on 65/3 after 9.4 overs.

The Northerns spinners seemed to tighten the grip on North West just as they had done in the first innings but Dragons captain Jonty Rapulana and Malan had other plans.

Together they played conservatively whilst putting up a 50 partnership, waiting for the right moments to put the bad balls to the fence.

It was however not enough in the end and the Dragons will have to regroup tomorrow for their clash against defending champions Eastern Province that starts at 13:00.

Eastern Province earlier completed a six wicket victory over Gauteng with David White hitting a magnificent 85 (63)

Photos: Wouter Pienaar