Bosch, Niemand stars as Border makes final
Border were the toast of the town on Sunday evening as they qualified for the finals weekend of the 2018 Africa Cup T20 competition with a thrilling three-wicket victory over Eastern Province at Buffalo Park.
It was desperately unlucky for EP, who had come into the final day’s play as the only unbeaten side on top of the log, but by the end of the day, Namibia had beaten Kenya and Border won their encounter leaving all three sides locked on 13 points.
It then came down to net run rate, and with Border’s being far superior than the other two, they topped the standings ahead of EP in second and Namibia third. In the match, Clayton Bosch (32 no off 30 balls, 3x4; 1x6) and Jason Niemand (28 off 24 balls, 3x4) were the heroes for the hosts as their superb half century stand, when the team was in all sorts of trouble, set them back on the winning track.
Bosch joined Niemand at the crease, with Border on 82/5 in the 11th over, chasing 138 to win, and EP in a rampant mood having removed the entire top five.
But the two then knuckled down, and took their time, batting out the next few overs before then picking up the pace towards the end of the innings.
Their match winning 55-run stand finally came to an end in the 19th over when Glenton Stuurman trapped Niemand LBW and then bowled Bamanye Xenxe off the next ball, but the scores were already level and his last ball of the over came off Bongolwethu Makeleni's thigh and ran away to the boundary as Border snuck over the line with six balls remaining.
Border's other important contributions came from Yaseen Vallie (31) and Gihahn Cloete (22) at the top of the order.
Thomas Kaber, 3/15, was the pick of the EP bowlers, while Stuurman backed him up well with 3/30.
At the start of play, Border won the toss and elected to field. It looked to be a good decision as pace spearhead Phaphama Fojela (3/25) struck with the last two balls of the third over, trapping opener Matthew Breetzke for 18 and then clean bowling Matthew Christensen for a first ball duck, as EP slipped to 22/2.
EP's star player in the match, Thomas Kaber's unbeaten 57 off 40 balls (4x4; 3x6) was vitally important in them reaching a competitive score of 137/7 at the end of their 20 overs. In the other match on the day, Namibia needed a super over to get past international rivals Kenya.
Kenya posted 183/9 batting first and Namibia matched that with 183/8 in the chase, before Namibia managed to hit 16 off their super over while Kenya could only respond with six.