KZN Coastals cruise to victory

THERE was was plenty of superb action at Addison Park on Sunday as the KZN Coastal Districts side proved too good for their Free State counterparts in an important SA Rural Cricket clash.

Fittingly, the game was preceded by a silent tribute to Dave Addison following his sad passing earlier in the week.

With their squad full of RH Construction uThungulu players, local fans were treated to a run feast when the KZN side were first to occupy the crease.

Keen to honour the man after whom the ground is named, KZN openers Stef Joubert (57) and Simon Savides (23) were aggressive and kept the scoreboard ticking over smartly.

This set the tone for the rest of the innings as good contributions came from most of the top and middle order batsmen.

Among those chipping in were skipper Eugene Swart (15), L Jali (15), Gary Bishop (43), Neil Jordan (21) and Trevor Kietzmann (34).

This enabled the hosts to reach a formidable total of 242/7 after their 50 allotted overs.

One had a certain amount of sympathy for the upcountry visitors, who toiled hard in the field under intense heat and humidity.

They had further misery coming out to bat when Neil Jordan struck with the first ball of the innings.

He would go on to claim figures of 3/54 with some fiery and intelligent bowling.

As an all-rounder who regularly excels with both bat and ball, Jordan must surely be knocking on the door for higher honours and one hopes the Dolphin selectors are keeping an eye out for the talent up north.

The ever reliable Stef Joubert also claimed three scalps to go along with his fine knock, conceding just 34 runs in the process.

Trevor Kietzmann took 2/19 with some honest endeavour as the home boys restricted Free State to 160 all out to take a comfortable win.

Well done to manager Fuzzy van Aswegen and skipper Eugene Zwart on another solid performance that keeps them in the hunt for pole position.