It’s all about keeping your nerve, says Beyers after Man of the Match knock
NORTHERN Cape Heat only have to hold their nerve to make it through to the finals of the CSA One Day Cup competition, said Beyers Swanepoel whose mighty innings in midweek against the Eastern Cape Inyathi helped the side to a memorable third victory in the series.
Swanepoel, who was crowned Man of the Match for his outstanding performance against the Inyathi said “Keeping calm and taking it as deep as possible” definitely helped him in his innings.
Swanepoel, coming in at the lower batting end on Wednesday against Inyathi, made a big difference with his bat getting a massive tally of 52 not out off 33 balls including 1x4 and 5x6s.
His arrival at the crease had been preceded by a number of nerve wracking moments when the hosts lost crucial wickets to the Inyathi bowling onslaught which made their run chase so much more difficult.
The local side had lost their top order Jonathan Vandiar, Ernest Kemm and Gerhardt Abrahams with the latter two dismissed for single digit scores. The departure of Isaac Dikgale (32), Victor Mahlangu (39), Aubrey Swanepoel (40) and Evan Jones (6) seemed to spell doom for the Heat.
NC Heat were at some point worryingly lagging behind Inyathi and the target set looked slightly unreachable with their run rate still way off the mark at 3.6 whereas the required rate was 6.2 with 25 overs remaining and 148 runs to win.
Frankly it looked like a bridge too far given the team’s nearest past performances which, to put it gently, was far from ideal in some instances.
But Swanepoel brushed up hugely on his personal batting profile. Facing 33 balls he converted that to almost two runs per ball notching up an undefeated 59 runs.
Beyers said: “We definitely had a chance if we take it in the last two overs … just to finish it off was special. There is always pressure in today's cricket there will always be pressure. It depends how you deal with it.”
Beyers said the upcoming game against the Limpopo Impalas on Sunday was one of two must-win games for the team in order to make it to the finals of the competition. Wednesday’s game against Inyathi was the other.
On being told the Impalas lost on Wednesday Swanepoel said: “Cricket is a funny game. You never know. We just have to be on our best”.
As for himself he was not playing for the history books but for the team, he said.
Impalas are bottom of the ranking in the One Day series. They lost their last three games including against Mpumalanga Rhinos by 31 runs and five wickets against the Hollywoodbets Tuskers and eight wickets against South Western Districts.
The match starts at 10am on Sunday. Vaccinated fans will be welcomed.