Border can sip success on fine Coke

Wins in final two games at Week great

IT was a relatively successful week for the Border U19 Coca-Cola Khaya Majola Week team when the festival came to an end in Bloemfontein on Tuesday afternoon.

Border ended the week with two wins, a winning draw, a draw and two losses in the six games they played over five days of cricketing action.

Border won both of their final games, against Namibia and Western Province (WP) to end the week well, after losing both their T20 matches on the third day.

“I am happy with the performance of the team. We played well and I was very happy with the way we finished the week,” said Border coach Andre de Beer.

“I said to the players that they showed a lot of character to bounce back and show their mettle after two losses on the third day and I am really happy with how the week went overall.”

Border started the week with a time cricket match against Northern Cape (NC) last week Friday.

Border bowled them out for 158, before reaching 164/4 in their first innings when play was called for the day, with Border awarded a winning draw due to having scored more runs than their opponents in the first innings.

Their second match was against Mpumalanga and, after Mpumalanga scored 234/8 declared in their first innings, Border reached 195/4 when play was called with that match being declared a draw.

Day three saw Border take on Free State and Easterns in T20 cricket.

Against Free State Border only managed 122/5 in their 20 overs, with Free State (FS) easily overhauling the score to win by nine wickets, while against Easterns again Border managed a below-par score of 120/9, which Easterns chased down with four wickets in hand.

On days four and five Border replied in the best possible way to the third day’s disappointment.

In their 50-over match against Namibia, Border bowled them all out for 229, before chasing down the score easily to win by seven wickets.

They also beat WP by 27 runs on the final day, after Border scored 227 all out. They bowled WP out for 183 (chasing 211 off 43 overs due to a rain delay).

A number of Border players shone over the week.

On the batting front captain Sinethemba Qeshile scored 204 runs in total, with a top score of 58 against NC, while he also made good contributions of 52, 37no, 23 and 32no against Mpumalanga, FS, Easterns and Namibia respectively.

“I was very happy with the way we played. The boys showed some character and never gave up,” said Qeshile.

Other Border batsmen to make solid contributions were Josneil Long, who scored 62no against NC and 77no, Border’s highest score of the week, against Mpumalanga, Nathan Roux with 73 against WP, Jason Niemand with 75no against Namibia and 42 against WP, and Athenkosi Mfazwe with 28no v NC and 53 v Namibia.

Siphamandla Krweqe was Border’s top wicket-taker with 11 wickets, with his best effort 5/40 against WP, while he also claimed 2/30 v NC, 2/12 v Easterns and 2/47 against Namibia.

Akhona Mnyaka and Luke Dallas both took 10 wickets each, with Mnyaka’s best efforts 4/28 v WP, 3/33 v NC and 3/57 v Mpumalanga, while Dallas picked up 3/9 v Easterns, 3/35 v Namibia and 3/37 v NC.

The standout all-rounder was Jason Raubenheimer, who managed to contribute in almost every game, scoring 195 runs and picking up four wickets.

His top score was 50 against WP, while he also managed good innings of 36no, 38no, 23 and 48 against Mpumalanga, FS, Easterns and Namibia respectively, while he also picked up 2/36 and 2/42 against Mpumalanga and Namibia.

In all it was a good week for Border and their players and they should head home for Christmas happy with their effort.