Warriors go top of the log after thrashing Boland

The Dafabet Warriors produced a superb all-round performance to crush Goldrush Boland by 98 runs to clinch a bonus-point win and leapfrog the previously unbeaten visitors to the top of the CSA T20 Challenge log in their match at St George’s Park in Gqeberha on Wednesday night.

After being put in to bat, opener Muhammad Manack and captain Matthew de Villers struck entertaining half centuries to power the hosts to a daunting 209-5 in their 20 overs.

A top bowling effort, led by Aphiwe Mnyanda picking up career best T20 figures of 4-23 in his four overs, backed up by CJ King (3-16) and Thomas Kaber (2-18) saw Boland skittled for just 111 in response.

The win sees the Warriors move onto 26 points at the top of the log and secures their place in next week Tuesdays first qualifier, while Boland have one more pool game and can still snatch top spot and a home qualifier if they thrash the Tuskers in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday.

In the match the Boland chase got off to a tough start as they lost three wickets in consecutive overs in the powerplay to immediately put them on the back foot, as the slide started in the fourth over, with CJ King having Grant Roelofsen (10) caught by Manack at deep backward square leg

In the next over Gavin Kaplan (15) popped the ball straight to Manack at point, and in the last over of the powerplay JP King had Clyde Reeves-Fortuin (1) caught by Modiri Litheko at deep midwicket, leaving them on 42-3.

Lehan Botha, 25 off 14 (5x4), and Aviwe Mgijima (8) then combined for the joint highest partnership of the innings, matching the 25 scored by openers Kaplan and Roelofsen, as they briefly battled back.

But once Mnyanda struck again, as Botha mistimed him to Patrick Kruger at long on, it started a crash that saw Boland lose their last seven wickets for just 44 runs, with it a procession over the rest of the innings as they fell well short.

MAKING MERRY

At the start of the match Manack got stuck in from the get go, 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 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 Botha in the deep, with the Warriors 118-3.

That brought JP 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 coming 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.

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.