Border lose the plot and their cup hopes

AFTER a chastening weekend for the Border semi-professional cricket team, they have effectively dropped out of the running for silverware in both competitions this season.

A draw in their Sunfoil 3-Day Cup match against South Western Districts and a loss in the Provincial OneDay Cup game has left them too far off the pace on both logs and means that they will only be playing for pride over their next four games.

“When you lose being competitive that is normally acceptable, but not the way we have played in these last few games against SWD and KZN Inland,” admitted Border coach Frank Plaatjes. “It has basically knocked us out of both competitions and that’s very disappointing because we have played well over most of this season.”

In both games over the weekend the Border batting department will have to shoulder a lot of the blame for the draw and defeat.

In the three-day match after SWD scored 370/4 declared, Border were knocked over for 158, being forced to follow-on before saving themselves by reaching 303/7 in their second innings when it was called off.

Debutant Jason Niemand excelled in the game, being the only wickettaker claiming 4/145 in SWD's innings, before being the second highest scorer with 28 in Border's first innings and then managing an unbeaten 54 in the second for a superb all-round performance.

Border's only other real contributors were Marco Marais with a century and Jerry Nqolo with a half century, both in the second innings.

In the one day Border were then bowled out for just 148, with SWD then cruising to an easy six-wicket win.

“It is simple, it is our batting, it has not been up to standard and has been very poor over the last few games against SWD and KZN Inland,” admitted Plaatjes.

“If you look at the one-day we batted really slowly upfront and that caused the domino effect because every batsman that went in was immediately under pressure, and that wasn’t enough runs on that surface.

“In the three-day in terms of batting that was unacceptable in the first innings, we have to do better than that. The wicket was very flat and was not doing anything, which is why the bowlers struggled, but it just shows just how bad our batting effort was with a lot of soft dismissals.”

Border will now face a two-week period to gear up for their next match against North West.