Warriors in T20 semis
Impressive 18-run victory at Buffalo Park hands unlikely contenders Ram Slam ticket
THE Warriors pulled off one of the great escapes in Ram Slam T20 Challenge history when they claimed a superb 18-run win against the Cape Cobras at Buffalo Park last night to sneak into the competition semifinals. The Warriors started the competition losing three of their first four matches, with the other one a washout, before following that up by winning four of their next six games, culminating in last night’s impressive victory, to make it to the knockouts to face the Titans in the semis.
Having set the Cobras 169 runs to win, the Warriors bowlers came to the party to restrict the Cobras to 150/6 at the end of their 20 overs.
Colin Ingram was the pick of the lot with 2/18 off three overs, claiming the prized scalps of Proteas stars Hashim Amla (39) and JP Duminy (14), while Christiaan Jonker’s one over went for six, with him also picking up a Proteas wicket – removing Temba Bavuma for just six.
Andrew Birch also bowled well, with his final two overs going for just 15 runs, and he claimed the wicket of George Linde (3), finishing with figures of 1/28 in four overs.
The only other Cobras batsman to trouble the scorers was Richard Levi, who had taken quite a liking to the bowling of Basheer Walters, hitting him for four boundaries and a six in an over and a half, before Walters got his revenge, having him caught on the boundary by Jerry Nqolo for 31.
Vernon Philander and Carlos Koyana made 22 and an unbeaten 20 respectively, but with their runs coming off 20 and 24 balls each it was not enough to keep up with the run rate required.
At the start of the match, the visitors won the toss and elected to field.
In just the second over, Mohammed Vallie (8) tried to chop Linde off the back foot, only to see his middle stump knocked back, with the Warriors at 16/1.
Ingram immediately made his intentions clear by hammering his first ball to the boundary and along with captain Jon-Jon Smuts took the attack to the Cobras bowlers.
Smuts clubbed Rory Kleinveldt for a six and a four in the third over, while Ingram then deposited Philander for a six and a four in the fourth, before they brought up the Warriors fifty in the sixth over.
By the halfway point of the innings, Smuts and Ingram had pushed the score to 85/1 and the Warriors would have been eyeing a score in the region of 180.
However, in the next over Ingram, looking for a six, skied Mthiwekhaya Nabe high to the boundary at deep midwicket, where Bavuma took the catch.
Ingram departed for a well-played 41 off 32 balls (2 fours, 3 sixes).
In the 13th over with his half century in sight, Smuts tried to drive the ball past Linde, who took a smart reaction catch off his own bowling as the opener fell for 48 off 30 balls (5 fours; 1 six), with the Warriors on 104/3.
Jonker was then joined by Colin Ackermann at the crease, and they looked to keep the score ticking as they each launched Linde for a six in the 15th over.
The 150 then came up in the 18th, before Ackermann skied one to mid-off at the start of the 19th, with Duminy taking the catch off the bowling of Dane Paterson.
New man Lesiba Ngoepe then skied Paterson off his first ball faced, only for the bowler to call for the catch and drop him, allowing the batsmen to run two, with Ngoepe then smashing the next ball over the deep cover boundary for six.
In the final over, Jonker pulled one straight to Paterson on the deep midwicket boundary off the bowling of Kleinveldt to be out for 38 off 26 balls (3 fours; 2 sixes) as the Warriors posted 168/5, which proved to be enough.