da wazamba： Border reached the close on the second day needing 95 more runs for victorywith nine wickets standing and two full days’ play left
Telford Vice – MWP02-Feb-2001Border reached the close on the second day needing 95 more runs for victorywith nine wickets standing and two full days’ play left.The home side, then, are well on top. However, the unpredictable nature ofthe pitch has made batting a less than perfect science and Northerns are by nomeans out of this match.Border replied to Northerns’ first innings of 190 with 236. The visitorsthen crashed to a second innings total of 150, leaving Border a victorytarget of 105, and the home side were 10 for one at the close.Border resumed on 114 for five and Northerns must have smelt blood whenLaden Gamiet was caught behind for 18 off the fifth ball of the day,delivered by Greg Smith.With Pieter Strydom, Gamiet added 42 runs in the most steady partnership ofthe innings up to that point and the breakthrough seemed to snuff outBorder’s hopes of taking a first innings lead.However, Strydom found in Vasbert Drakes a reliable partner and theyfrustrated the visitors until midway through the morning session whenStrydom tamely succumbed to the slip cordon off the bowling of DavidTownsend.The Border skipper’s typically gutsy innings of 86 began with his teamteetering on 47 for four, and it encompassed three hours, 126 balls and 14fours.Strydom’s dismissal made it 188 for seven, and the tail did well to wringanother 48 runs out of the innings, which ended three overs before lunch.Drakes was ninth out for 35, while Geoff Love helped him put on 31 usefulruns for the eighth wicket.Gerald Dros dismissed Love and Drakes in the space of three deliveries butNortherns’ most impressive bowler was Townsend, who kept it tight and letthe pitch do the rest in taking five for 49.Northerns, then, began their second innings with a deficit of 46 runs, andslipped further into trouble when Drakes removed Johan Myburgh and Martinvan Jaarsveld with consecutive deliveries in the 14th over.The West Indian trapped opener Myburgh in front for 11 before having VanJaarsveld caught behind by wicketkeeper Mark Boucher.Drakes proved his immense worth to Border for the umpteenth time by alsodismissing Jacques Rudolph and Neil McKenzie to claim the scalps ofNortherns’ entire top four in taking four for 35.He bowled McKenzie for 24 to reduce the visitors to 83 for five, perhaps thepoint of no return for a team which went to tea on 69 for two and lost theirlast eight wickets for 81 runs.Border bowled well, but Northerns caused most of their own misery by playingexpansively when circumspection was called for.Piet Botha was caught at short leg off Smith for eight with what became thelast ball of the day’s play, leaving Craig Sugden not out on one.