Under-19s get their revenge over Northerns while NCC cruise to win over WP

THE LAST two One-day fixtures in the Group C, Pool D of the Senior Provincial Men’s tournament were played in Kimberley on Tuesday.

At the Kimberley Oval eta Northerns took on the SA Under-19s with the Three-day fixture of a few days ago still fresh in their minds, where Northerns had hammered the youngsters by an innings and 82 runs. But the Under-19s exacted revenge by winning Tuesday’s encounter by 8 wickets.

Over at Country Club B a solid 248/7 for Western Province was not enough to keep their Northern Cape hosts at bay with NCC winning that encounter by seven wickets.

SA Under-19 won the toss and elected to field against Northerns who lost their first wicket in the first over with their total on 6. This seemed to have either rattled their confidence or boosted the confidence of the Under-19s because Northerns lost wickets at regular intervals and after 18 overs were on 59/6 and at the second drinks break.

Northerns scratched and scraped to 95/8 after 30 overs and eventually managed to post a score of 102 all out, at a run rate of 2.9 runs to the over. Only two batsmen really showed some real resistance to the SA Under-19 bowlers, with Gionne Koopman (23) and Gregory Mahlokwana not out on 20.

The pick of the Under-19 bowlers were Jan Hendrik Coetzer with 5/28 in 8.3 overs and Liam Alder 2/20.

In their chase, the SA Under-19s lost their first wicket with their score on 5 in the third over, but that did not deter them, in fact from then on they increased their run rate to over 5, racing to 77/2 after 14 overs. The partnership for the third wicket, between Brevis and van Heerden realised 57 runs with Dewald Brevis not out on 54 and George van Heerden not out on 23. The pair steered the youngsters to their total of 103/2, in 16.4 overs, thus sealing a handsome 8 wicket win.

Meanwhile, over at the Country Club B field, Western Province won the toss and elected to bat first against their hosts. Taking advantage of good batting conditions the WP batsmen went to work and posted a useful 248/7, with Bonga Makaka scoring 62, Andre Malan 77, Brendon Louw 20 and Ryan Klein not out on 31.

The best of the Northern Cape bowlers were Beyers Swanepoel (4/40) and Gettit Cloete (2/38).

In their reply NCC, thanks to an unbeaten ton from Ernest Kemm, a fighting 56 from Clyde Fortuin, 22 from Blake Schraader, 30 from Aubrey swanepoel and an undefeated 27 from Garnett Tarr managed to cruise to 250/3 in 46.2 overs, sealing their 7 wicket victory.

For Province Diego du Plessis 1/43, Lehan Botha 1/45 and Jesse Christensen 1/24 were the wicket takers.