Frylinck, Maharaj fightback too late for Dolphins

THE brass band had plenty to blow about at St George’s Park last night as the Warriors beat the Dolphins in a rain-interrupted Momentum One-Day Cup match.

Having scored an imposing 276/7 in their innings, thanks largely to a superb 96 from Yaseen Vallie, the Warriors were given a late fright when Robbie Frylinck and Keshav Maharaj added 61 in 48 balls for the ninth wicket, before the visitors finally succumbed by 42 runs in a Duckworth/Lewis finish.

Vallie left the Cobras at the end of last season because he wasn’t getting enough franchise cricket.

After successive half-centuries in the Warriors’ victories against the Titans and the Dolphins, the wristy righthand batsman will be happy that he’s made the right choice.

Batting first after winning the toss, the Warriors’ innings was initially built by Gihahn Cloete (49) and skipper Colin Ingram (53), before Vallie impressively took over.

Cloete was unlucky to be run out when Sibs Makhanya tipped the ball on to the stumps at the bowler’s end, but the left-hander had struggled to keep the scoreboard ticking, scoring his runs in 89 balls, and it was probably the right moment for him to go.

Vallie is best known as a “touch” player, but he showed last night that he is quite capable of clearing the boundary when required as he inspired the Warriors to score 93 off the last 10 overs. The Dolphins had the worst possible start to their reply when they lost their captain, Morne van Wyk, for his second successive duck in the second over, playing on to an Andrew Birch delivery.

The Dolphins then fought back through Van Jaarsveld. The left-hander’s 28 in 20 balls, which included six superbly struck boundaries, was about as perfect a cameo as you could wish for as he and Delport added 49 runs in quick time without a moment’s concern.

Van Jaarsveld’s unlucky dismissal was, in retrospect, a death blow for the visitors after Delport smacked a ball back at Birch, who fortuitously got a finger on to the ball before it crashed into the stumps, leaving the left-hander well out of his ground.

After that, the Dolphins were on the back foot, with Jon-Jon Smuts grabbing three wickets in one over to seemingly put victory out of their reach.

Frylinck, who struck his fourth List A 50, and Maharaj then staged a brave recovery without quite convincing that the Dolphins would steal a win, and so it proved.