Bay bat their way to Weber Cup victory

THANKS to a number of fine contributions with the bat, Richards Bay District won a closely fought Weber Cup battle against uMkhanyakude District at Addison Park on Saturday.

Winning the toss and electing to take the crease, the Bay side compiled a solid 192-run total, thanks mainly to the top order chipping in with decent scores.

Bertie Basson (16) and Waldo van der Westhuizen (41) put on 26 runs for the opening wicket, with the latter next to go with the score on 73 as Dale van der Merwe (36), Charl Groenewald (18) and Dewand Baaitjies (26) continued to pile on the runs.

Darryn Sedice (18) and Gavin Holtzhausen (14) both added to the total, which would have been much higher had it not been for the wizardry of Nishen Dhanasar, whose figures of 4/32 at an economy rate of 3.6 spoke volumes.

Dhanasar carried on where he left off as Richards Bay took to the field, patiently accumulating 42 runs and featuring in an 84-run stand for the third wicket with Sphamandla Thusi (48).

Unfortunately, there was little help lower down the order, apart from Sbongomusa Khumalo with his unbeaten 20 runs as uMkhanyakude were finally dismissed for 175, only 17 runs short of the target.

Wickets were shared by the Richards Bay bowlers, the best being Charl Marais 3/16 off three overs and Waldo van der Westhuizen 2/22 off seven.