Manack and De Villiers power Warriors to strong total against Boland

Opener Muhammad Manack and captain Matthew de Villers struck entertaining half centuries as they powered the Dafabet Warriors to a strong 209-5 in their 20 overs of their CSA T20 Challenge clash against Goldrush Boland St George’s Park in Gqeberha on Wednesday evening.

Boland won the toss and chose to bowl, but that didn’t seem to be the correct call as Manack got stuck in from the start, crashing his way to 52 off 28 balls (8x4; 1x6), before De Villiers, 50 off 37 (8x4), and JP King, 46 off 23 (4x4; 2x6) produced the fireworks at the end to get their side to a very defendable total.

The Warriors' innings got off to a great start thanks to an 85-run opening stand between Manack and Modiri Litheko, 29 off 20 (3x4; 2x6), which included them plundering 75 off the six-over powerplay.

Manack tucked into Glenton Stuurman, hitting 16 off his first over and 17 off his second, and also hammered 16 of Keith Dudgeon’s fifth, while Litheko cracked sixes off Akhona Mnyaka and Imran Manack, getting 10 off each of their overs, as they made merry early on.

Imran Manack finally made the breakthrough in the eighth over, darting a ball in quickly through Litheko’s defences to knock his middle stump over, and Manack, having just reached 50, followed in the next, bowled by Ferisco Adams as they slipped to 87-2.

That saw Boland stage a middle-overs fightback, as Matthew Breetzke (12) and De Villers slowed things down a touch, moving their side to 101-2 at the halfway mark.

Having been tied down for a bit, Breetzke decided to try open up in the 13th over, and crashed Mnyaka over the offside for a boundary, but he tried to repeat the shot off the next ball and spliced it to Lehan Botha in the deep, with the Warriors 118-3.

That brought King in, and along with De Villiers they ticked things along to the 15th over, which they reached on 134-3.

With the platform set, that allowed them to unleash down the back straight as 75 came off the last five overs, including 20 off Dudgeon in the 17th, 18 off Stuurman in the 18th and 14 off the last from Dudgeon, which smashed the Warriors over 200, although both King and De Villiers fell late on.

The hosts will feel confident of defending the total, while Boland will have plenty of work to do to keep their unbeaten run in the competition going.

DAFABET WARRIORS: Modiri Litheko, Muhammed Manack, Matthew de Villiers (capt), Matthew Breetzke (wk) JP King, Patrick Kruger, Thomas Kaber, CJ King, Aphiwe Mnyanda, Wesley Bedja, Kerwin Mungroo.

GOLDRUSH BOLAND: Gavin Kaplin, Grant Roelofsen, Clyde Reeves-Fortuin (capt, wk), Lehan Botha, Aviwe Mgijima, Ferisco Adams, Jhedli van Briesies, Keith Dudgeon, Imraan Manack, Glenton Stuurman, Siyabonga Mahima.