da brdice： Border’s recent improvement, in which they had won their last three matchesfollowing three defeats to start their Standard Bank Cup campaign, came to ashuddering halt as KwaZulu-Natal beat them by 58 runs on the Duckworth-Lewismethod, jumping
MWP29-Dec-2000Border’s recent improvement, in which they had won their last three matchesfollowing three defeats to start their Standard Bank Cup campaign, came to ashuddering halt as KwaZulu-Natal beat them by 58 runs on the Duckworth-Lewismethod, jumping three places to fourth on the log in the process.Set 219 for victory, the home side was struggling on 105 for six when rain,which had been threatening for some time, forced the players off the fieldin the 25th over. Five overs were lost and the game resumed with Borderneeding a further 102 off 15.3 overs, or 93 balls, to win.They got less than half of them, with top-scorer Laden Gamiet failing to addto a somewhat laboured 36 after the resumption – he faced 79 balls in all -and Piet Botha, Tyron Henderson and finally Vasbert Drakes dying for thecause as Border slumped to 148 all out after just 34.1 overs.Jon Kent had spearheaded the Dolphins’ attack before the break, claiming thescalps of Pieter Strydom, Craig Sugden and Wayne Wiblin, for an eventualanalysis of three for 42, but the wickets were shared around after the rain,with four bowlers, including skipper Dale Benkenstein, each snaring avictim.Earlier, Border had done relatively well to hold the visitors to 218 foreight off their 45 overs. Doug Watson (14 off 14 balls) and Ashraf Mall, whotop-scored with 65 off 104 balls, had given them a rollicking start. Mall,who made his third half-century in four matches, got 19 off his first 15balls as he demonstrated his willingness to go over the top with the fieldup. By the first ball of his third over, Botha had conceded 22 runs, but hetrapped Watson in front later in the over en route to a reasonable comeback,finishing with two for 53. Tyron Henderson, Liam Graham and Strydom alsopicked up two wickets each.A whirlwind 29 off 21 balls late in the piece from Goolam Bodi and a moresedate 32 in the middle order from Benkenstein were the main supportingknocks for Mall, who is enjoying a purple patch he’ll be hoping is set tocontinue for some time yet.