Eastern Province v Border - CSA Provincial Three-Day Competition - Day 3 – Live Score and Update
Eastern Province 349 and 148 v Border 231 and 270/5 (63.4 ov) - Border won by 5 wickets
Border, Saturday, won their CSA Provincial Three-Day Competition against Eastern Province by five wickets on the final day of play at St George's Park, Port Elizabeth.
This is a disappointing result for Eastern Province, who had a spectacular start by hammering a massive score of 349 in their first innings and then managed to halt Border on 231. From here on, it was supposed to be a piece of cake for them; however, the insipid performance in the second innings let them down.
Closing the second day of play with 105 for eight, things were looking bad for Eastern Province, and now it was imperative for them to launch an early batting onslaught, first thing in the morning on Saturday, to rattle the Border bowlers.
A strong start would have put them in a position from where they could have won by bowling out their opposition before the end of the match.
Overnight batting pair of LR Walters and S Gidana started the proceedings on the final day and exhibited strength by launching a blatant attack to put the bowlers on the defensive.
With Walters doing most of the damage, the pair took the score to 142, before he was removed by de Wett for 51.
Border then did not waste any time as they wrapped up the innings with 148 on the board.
This was now a nerve-racking contest with Border requiring 267 to win, while Eastern Province all set to give a tough fight.
However, Border have their openers V Makhaphela and BL Bennett to thank for an extraordinary start to the run chase, as the duo clobbered 107 runs, before Makhaphela was taken down with 51 runs to his name.
Eastern Province then made another quick breakthrough by neutralizing KD Bennett for six. At the time of this wicket, Border were sitting on 113.
This was the momentum which Eastern Province required in order to win the game. However, Border knew that if they failed to stop their opposition now, it would be too late for them to save the match, so with BL Bennett taking lead, the third-wicket partnership led the side towards 201. While Bennett was unstoppable, he was supported well by BC de Wett as the two batsmen put their side on course to victory.
However, this partnership did not stay till the end of the match, as it was broken by Smuts, who dismissed de Wett for 27 runs.
Nonetheless, with Bennett unbeaten on 138 and DL Brown on 36, Border reached the target in 63.4 overs for the loss of five wickets.
Tags: