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KZN grind out win to take title by Eddie Anderson 21 March 2010 KZN women grind out win to take titleThe KZN women’s cricket team won the South African Provincial Championship at Sahara Kingsmead, Durban on Saturday March 20, convincingly defeating Western Province, the champions for the past two years, by a margin of 4 wickets. Having dismissed Province for a disappointing 125 runs in 40.4 overs, KZN’s batsmen treated the Western Province bowling with great respect. Led by a highly responsible innings of 48 in 91 balls by Nikita Sole, the KZN batsmen slowly ground out a well deserved win, reaching the target of 126 in 47.3 overs. Western Province won the toss and decided to bat under clear skies, with the cloudy conditions forecast for the afternoon likely to help the swing bowlers. Although the outfield was surprisingly heavy, the pitch played easily throughout the day with the clouds arriving too late in the afternoon to help the Province bowlers, but the Western Province top order brought about their own downfall with injudicious shots and poor running between the wickets. Two of the first three batsmen were run out going for runs that were simply not there. After a disastrous start with two wickets falling with the score on 6, the situation for Western Province went from bad to worse. KZN’s accurate bowling was supported by excellent catching and fielding and 7 Province wickets were down for 53 runs by the 20th over. Helped by a lone dropped catch, Province struggled to 125 all out in 40.4 overs, with only Ashlyn Kilowan (27) and Shabnim Ismail (27 not out), supported by Robyn Appels (16) and Yolani Fourie (12), registering scores worth noting. Dinesha Devnarain with 3 for 30 and Rasika Maharaj with 2 for 25 were the best KZN bowlers.Western Province’s hopes of a quick wicket or two were dashed when the KZN openers put on 41 runs in 90 balls for the first wicket, but when both Trisha Chetty (21) and Nadine Moodley (18) were dismissed by Nuraan Pipers, the match was still in the balance. It even swung briefly Province’s way when Pipers bowled Ramnath with the score on 57, but a stubborn stand of 51 in 104 balls by Nikita Sole and Dinesha Devnarain sealed Province’s fate despite some excellent bowling by Nuraan Pipers (3 for 14), Ashlyn Kilowan (2 for 18) and Yolani Fourie (1 for 15). These three bowlers took 6 wickets between them and gave away only 47 runs off their combined 30 overs, but the other bowlers could not stem the steady but remorseless KZN run flow, and were let down by some poor fielding and catching. Nikita Sole, with a determined innings of 48 and 3 excellent slip catches, was the deserved man of the match. Commenting after the match, KZN captain Dinesha Devnarain praised the Western Province fight back after their poor start. She felt that her team had been more patient on a wicket which was slow and made it difficult for batsmen to get the ball off the square. Western Province captain Olivia Anderson praised the KZN effort. “This was a poor performance by most of our top batsmen, including myself, but a fine rearguard effort by our bowlers. Our fielding was poor. We dropped a couple of vital catches and gave away nearly 20 runs in the field through misfields. KZN were the better team on the day. Congratulations to them – they deserve to be the champions.” |
