It’s all even at the Wally Wilson Oval, WPCC where hosts, Western Province (WP) are playing Griqualand West in the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Three-Day Provincial Competition.

The home side won the toss and elected to bat first. The team struggled to produce steady partnerships as they were 79 for five at one stage. It was the 49 run sixth wicket partnership of Sybrand Engelbrecht and George Linde that took the side past the 120 mark before Werner Coetsee struck to dismiss Linde for 31. While Engelbrecht was standing firm in the crease on one end, off-breaker Aubrey Swanepoel was picking up wickets on the other end and finished with figures of 5 for 48 in 21 overs.

Engelbrecht eventually got his well deserved half century off 118 balls before he became Coetsee’s third victim 10 balls later for 57. Coetsee finished with figures of 3 for 54 to dismiss WP all out for 174 in their first innings.

The Griquas lost the wicket of Roy Adams to Nathan Swartz in the first over of their innings. George Linde made use of the wicket that assisted the spinners to fight back for WP. He ended the day with figures of four for 25 to reduce Griquas to 95 for 6 in 45 overs at close of play. WP were 97 for 5 in the same stage.

Teams

WP: Matthew Kleinveldt (captain), Sharn Gomes, Michael Pote, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Bradley Barnes (w/k), Mondli Mahlombe, George Linde, Nathan Swartz, Johan Bothma, Jason Smith and Francois Plaatjies

Griquas: Roy Adams, Alan Kruger (captain), Aubrey Swanepoel, Wesly Landsdale, Werner Coetsee, Diego Rosier, Griffin Nieuwoudt, Jean-Pierre Triegaardt (w/k), Jan Steenkamp, Lonwabo Rodolo and Deon Carolus

Umpires: Rudi Birkenstock and Laurance Willemse

Reserve umpire: Stephen Rex

The Western Province First Class Provincial team will take on Griqualand West at the Western Province Cricket Club (WPCC) in the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Provincial Three-Day Competition on Thursday, 28 February to Saturday, 02 March 2013 and the CSA Provincial T20 Competition on Sunday, 03 March 2013.

The team is as follows:

Matthew Kleinveldt (captain), Sharn Gomes, Michael Pote, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Bradley Barnes (w/k), Jason Smith, GF Linde, Mondli Mahlombe, Johan Bothma, Nathan Swartz, Francois Plaatjies, Chad Fortune and Faiek Davids (coach).

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Wet pitch forced umpires Adriaan Crafford and Lourens Engelbrecht to redeuce the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Provincial Pro20 match between Gauteng and Western Province at the Wanderers to 15 overs a-side.

Gauteng won the toss and elected to field first and they bowled WP out for a mere 79 runs in 14.1 overs. The homeside reached the target in just 10 overs with seven wickets remaining.

TEAMS

WP: Yaseen Vallie, Matthew Kleinveldt (captain), Michael Pote, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Bradley Barnes (w/k) Sharn Gomes, Aviwe Mgijima, Siyabulela Simetu, Travis Muller, Nathan Swartz and Francois Plaatjies.

GAUTENG: Stephen Cook, Yasaar Cook, Devon Conway, Shane Burger, Brian Banaard, Thami Tsolekile (w/k), Shaheen Khan, Richard das Neves (captain), Sean Jamison, Eddie Leie and Ethan O’Reily

Shaheen Khan took five wickets to give Gauteng a comfortable 126 run win over Western Province (WP) in the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Provincial Three Day Challenge at the Wanderers Stadium. The visitors resumed on day three requiring another 334 runs to win with eight wickets remaining and were bowled all out for 232 in the second innings. While Khan dismissed four of WP’s top order batters, Eddie Leie came in and rocked the middle and lower order to wrap it up for Gauteng. He finished with figures of three for 41 in 24.3 overs.

Bradley Barnes’ 72 off 168 balls and his 93 run fifth wicket partnership with Sybrandt Engelbrecht (45) was not enough to secure victory for their team as the Gauteng bowlers already did the damage on top.

The two teams will battle one last time in the CSA Provincial Pro20 Challenge on Sunday, 24 February 2013 at the Wanderers Stadium.

Day 2 at the Wanderers ended with Gauteng still on top of WP in their CSA Provincial Three Day match.

WP had resumed on the second morning on 50 for two in their first innings and Michael Pote and Yaseen Vallie remained positive in the crease to produce a third wicket partnership of 111 before a double strike by Shaheen Khan set them back.  Vallie’s 58 was what the visitors needed to avoid the follow on.

Gauteng had a first innings’ lead of 181 when they dismissed WP for 198, compliments of Junior Dala and Grahame Hume who took four and three wickets respectively.

The hosts made an encouraging start of their second innings, with Stephen Cook (61) and Dominic Hendricks (31) adding 60 for the first wicket before Nathan Swartz ended what seemed to be a menacing partnership.

Shane Burger (34) and Richard das Neves (20) also chipped in with the bat to stretch the lead past the 350 mark before another double strike this time by Matthew Kleinvedt to force captain das Neves to declare their second innings on 177 for six, leading by 358 runs.

WP started their second innings scruffily when they lost Gomes (0) and Pote (0) in one over to Shaheen Khan. At one stage, they were 0 for two wickets. Kleinveldt (2*) and Vallie (21*) took the visitors to 25 for two at close of play, they require another 334 runs to win with 8 wickets remaining.

The Western Province (WP) First Class Provincial team travelled to Johannesburg for their Cricket South Africa (CSA) Provincial 3-day match against Gauteng at the Wanderers stadium on Thursday, 21 Feb 2013.

The visitors won the toss and elected to field first.

After the hosts lost their first two wickets in the first seven overs of the match, it was Devon Conway (46) and Grant Mokoena (90) who stood firm in the crease to recover their team’s innings when they produced a third wicket partnership of 104 runs which was followed by another 101 run partnership by Shane Burger (79) and Sizwe Masondo (66). Captain Richard das Neves also came in and scored a quick fire 50 off 48 balls to assist his side secure a decent first innings target of 379 runs.

Brendan Young and Nathan Swartz took three wickets apiece to help reduce Gauteng from setting an enormous target.

With just 14 overs left for the day, WP came in to bat and lost to quick wickets of captain Kleinveldt (1) and Sharn Gomes (12) to Junior Dala. Day 1 ended with the visitors on 50 for 2 trailing by another 329 runs in the first innings.

Teams:

WP: Matthew Kleinveldt (captain), Sharn Gomes, Michael Pote, Yaseen Vallie, Sybrandt Engelbrecht, Bradley Barnes (w/k), Aviwe Mgijima, Brendan Young, Johannes Bothma, Mondli Mahlombe and Nathan Swartz.

Gauteng: Stephen Cook, Dominic Hendricks, Devon Conway, Grant Mokoena, Shane Burger, Sizwe Masondo (w/k), Richard das Neves (captain), Shaheen Khan, Graham Hume, Eddie Leie and Junior Dala.

The Western Province First Class Provincial team will play Gauteng in the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Provincial Three Day match from  Thursday, 21 February - Saturday 23 February 2013 at New Wanderers Stadium. This match will be followed by a CSA Provincial T20 match between the two teams at the same venue on Sunday, 24 February 2013.

The team:

Matthew Kleinveldt (Capt), Sharn Gomes, Mohammad Yaseen Vallie, Michael Pote, Sybrandt Engelbrecht, Bradley Barnes (w/k), Aviwe Mgijima, Mondli Mahlombe, Travis Muller, Johan Bothma, Nathan Swartz, Brendon Young, Francoi Plaatjies, Siyabulela Simetu and Faiek Davids (coach)

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ENDS

Following the rain affected Three Day Provincial match between WP and Northerns in Pretoria, the rain continued to frustrate the teams when the first  Cricket South Africa (CSA) Provincial Pro20 match for the season was also affected by the rain halfway through the match.

WP won the toss and elected to bowl first under overcast conditions. Brendan Young, Sybrandt Engelbrecht and Siya Simetu all took two wickets apiece to reduce the hosts to 104 runs in their allotted 20 overs.

WP’s innings were reduced to 15 overs due to rain and the revised target was 85 runs. The team had shaky start when they lost to quick wickets of Matthew Kleinveldt and GF Linde in the first two overs of their innings, however it did not take too long for the rain to pour down again forcing the match to be called off by the umpires at only 3.1 overs bowled.

WP will travel to Free State for their next fixture.

Teams:

WP: Matthew Kleinveldt, George Linde, Kyle Schreuder, Sybrandt Engelbrecht, Dale Campbell, Bradley Barnes, Brendan Young, Siya Simetu, Mondli Mahlombe,  Johan Bothma and Nathan Swartz.

EP: Lerato Kgoatle, Francois le Clus, Cobus Pienaar, Graem van Buuren, Shershan Naidoo, Heinrich Klaasen, Jeandre Jumat, Eden Links, Thomas Kaber, Eldred Hawken and Tumi Masekela.

After no play took place on the second day of the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Provincial Three Day match between the Northerns and Western Province (WP), only 9.3 overs were bowled in the third and last day of the match.

With only three runs added to the overnight score, debutant Eldred Hawken striked in the first over of the third day to end Sybrand Engelbrecht’s innings of 175 and forced WP to declare on 458 for 5 in the first innings.

The Northerns lost two wickets in succession to Johan Bothma and Anees Davids before the rain  came pouring down in the first session of the day forcing no further play to take place for the day. At this stage, the Northerns were 45 for 2, trailing by for 413 runs in the first innings.

This is the third draw for WP this season that is affected by rain and it leaves them in fourth position in the CSA Provincial Three Day Competition log with 7.96 points behind log leaders and neighbours Boland who are currently on 73.02 points after 7 games.

Day 3 got underway as scheduled at Chatsworth Stadium.  Qaasim Adams and Matthew Kleinveldt who ended day 2 undefeated with an 89-run third wicket partnership for WP resumed their innings and went on to produce a 3rd wicket partnership of 104 runs until Adams was bowled out in the fifth over of the day for 66 by former WP player Dane Paterson. Captain Kleinveldt was hoping to get a result out of this game when he decided to declare WP innings of 235/6 at lunch giving KZN a 5 runs 1st innings lead.

KZN opening batsmen, Chad Bowes and Nashen Govender made use of a wicket that provided little assistance for the bowlers when they produced an opening stand of 104 runs. It was Johan Bothma who gave WP a much needed breakthrough when he dismissed Govender who fell just 3 runs short of his half century but it was rather a little bit too late as the damaged was already done by the two batsmen for KZN and there was not enough time left for the day’s play.

At tea, after seeing zero chances of a possible result, the two captains decided to settle for a draw. At that stage, KZN were 105/1 leading by 110 runs and WP were still yet to bat their second innings to chase the target down.

The two teams will face each other one last time tomorrow in the CSA Provincial One Day Competition.

Match scores will be updated on twitter @wp_cricket and on our facebook page "Western Province Cricket Association."