Dominant Dolphins thrash woeful Warriors

The Hollywoodbets Dolphins thrashed a woeful Dafabet Warriors by seven wickets in their CSA T20 Challenge match at a sunny Kingsmead on Sunday.

After their fine performance in beating Western Province in Gqeberha earlier in the week, the Warriors looked unrecognisable as the same team as the Dolphins dismissed them for 94 before reaching their target in just 14.2 overs, gaining an important bonus point in the process.

This means that the Dolphins, hard on the heels of leaders Goldrush Boland, have won each of their first three matches, two with bonus points.

Chasing 95 for victory, Dolphins’ openers Tshepang Dithole and Khaya Zondo barely broke a sweat as they added 65 in 10 overs before Dithole was bowled, having a slog at Aphiwe Mnyanda. 

Zondo also gave away his wicket before skipper Jon Jon Smuts and new signing Leus du Plooy completed the easiest of tasks. Smuts’ smash over long on was an appropriate final signature to a Dolphins’ victory that was almost embarrassingly one-sided.

The game was effectively over halfway through when the Warriors crumbled for 94 in 19.1 overs on a good Kingsmead pitch.

The Dolphins bowled and fielded well, but the Warriors will be only too aware of their own culpability for a dreadful batting performance in which they gave away most of their wickets without looking as though they had any kind of plan. 

Only Patrick Kruger flourished, to a certain extent, slamming two sixes and a four in his 32 before becoming the final victim, caught at long-on to the first ball of the final over delivered by Andile Simelane, the Dolphins’ most successful bowler with 3-13 in 3.1 overs.

STRUGGLING WITH THE CONDITIONS

The Dolphins won the toss and inserted the Warriors on an easy-paced pitch, but with a typical Kingsmead tennis ball bounce, and the visitors were simply unable to adapt to the conditions.

First to go was the ultra-aggressive Muhammed Manack, who struck two boundaries before clipping Ethan Bosch straight to Aryan Gopalan at deep square leg. The youngster ran quickly forward and took a good low catch.

Manack’s partner, Modiri Litheko, then chipped Tristan Luus to mid-on for the softest of dismissals. Matthew de Villiers, the Warriors’ captain who played so well in his half-century against Western Province, made a promising start, clipping Luus behind square leg for four and then driving him backward of point for another boundary. But he then attempted to pull Anrich Nortje and, beaten for pace, he could only splice the ball to midwicket.

Nortje then produced a snorter that new batter Jean du Plessis could only edge to wicketkeeper Gomelelo Phiri, and the former Protea completed a double-wicket maiden.

Simelane then imposed more hurt on the visitors when pinch-hitter Matthew Boast lofted him to deep midwicket, where Luus took a good catch running to his right.

That meant that the Warriors had struggled to 49 for five at the end of the eighth over, and the run-rate fell to a dribble as the batters struggled to cope. As it turned out, only Kruger was able to do so in his 36-ball innings, with the tail dissolving.

Bosch, Nortje and left-arm spinner Aryan Gopalan all provided good support for Simelane, claiming two wickets apiece as the Warriors' batting effort fell away.

DOLPHINS: Tshepang Dithole, Khaya Zondo, Jon-Jon Smuts (capt), Leus du Plooy, Eathan Bosch, Gomolelo Phiri (wk), Andile Simelane, Romashan Pillay, Aryan Gopalan, Tristan Luus, Anrich Nortje

WARRIORS: Modiri Litheko, Muhammed Manack, Matthew de Villiers (capt), JP King, Patrick Kruger, Jean du Plessis (wk), Thomas Kaber, Aphiwe Mnyanda, Matthew Boast, Wesley Bedja, Kerwin Mungroo