Rain stops Border from fixing defeat

RAIN had the final say as the CSA One Day Cup match between Border and Easterns was washed out without a ball being bowled at Buffalo Park yesterday.

Persistent overnight and morning rain eventually led to the umpires calling the game off shortly before lunch.

“We are very disappointed the game was called off,” said Border coach Frank Plaatjes.

“The whole team just feels that we needed to play because the five-week break between the EP game and Easterns was hard on us and we needed some more game time.”

It was also disappointing for the hosts as they would have been wanting to bounce back after they crumbled to a defeat in the Sunfoil 3-day Cup match that ended on Saturday afternoon.

It was a terrible batting display from the Border batsmen that cost them in the end after their bowlers had twice put them in a great position.

This was an unfortunate time for the batting unit to not fire, as before this match it had been the batsmen who had been more dependable than the bowlers, but not this time.

Having bowled out Easterns for 177 on day one, Border could only reply with 141 all out, and with the bowlers again putting in a solid shift to limit them to 183 all out early on the third morning, Border should have been comfortable with chasing down the 220 run target to win.

However, another insipid display meant they were bowled out for 135 to lose by a whopping 84runs in such a low scoring match.

“It was just a bad batting disp admitted Plaatjes.

“I just can’t put a finger on the exact problem but we had no application. If we could have just stayed in the middle for more than two-and-a-half sessions we would have put on a decent score and that would have changed the whole complexion of the game.”

Border’s highest score across both innings was Marco Marais’ 40 in the first, while no batsman passed 25 in the second innings, and that proved the difference as in each innings Easterns had one batsman who managed to pull them out the fire – Matthew Arnold with 83 in the first and Sizwe Masondo with 70 in the second.

The Border bowlers should, however, be happy with their work after a good all-round effort.

Phaphama Fojela led the line well again, picking up 2/36 and 3/18 in each innings, while Sinovuyo Ntuntwana with 3/30 in the second innings also impressed.

However, the other bowlers all chipped in and they will want to build on this good showing in the next game.

“The bowlers were good, everyone contributed and the wickets were spread out, so I was happy with their effort,” said Plaatjes.

Border’s next match will be away against Western Province in the first week of March.