A near century by Annemie Koen and a five-wicket haul by Gail Abrahams gave the South Western Districts (SWD) a convincing 199-run win against Kei in their Cricket South Africa (CSA) Women’s Provincial League match in Mthatha last weekend.
Koen scored a brisk 97 from 82 balls to get SWD to 251 when they batted first, with Monique Booysen adding 39 valuable runs to the scoreboard to help the side to the competitive score in spite of C Mtshizana’s 4/52 and A Ntoyoba’s 2/32.
In reply, Kei could not keep their wickets long enough to put substantial runs on the board. Gail Abrahams’ notable performance with the ball earned her five wickets for just 19 runs in seven overs while Booysen also starred with the ball to take two more scalps and help dismiss Kei for 52 runs.
In Kraaifontein, Western Province (WP) won the latest round against their regional rivals, Boland. In a closely contested match Boland batted first, posting 143/7 with Yolandi Potgieter scoring 54 (116 balls). WP made 145/9 to win with seven balls to spare.
It was a good week for the Gauteng women who won both their matches. They had a close match against defending champions, Northerns, but managed to beat them by two wickets. This was followed by a 10-wicket thrashing of Limpopo when they met in Johannesburg.
In Bloemfontein, Free State (FS) beat North West (NW) by 75 runs. The hosts batted first, posting 245/8 thanks to good batting by G Janse van Rensburg (48), A Minny (44) and M Loftus (40). They topped up the impressive batting with notable bowling by A van Wyk who took four wickets for 30 and Masabatha Klaas and M Loftus who took 3/25 and 2/34 respectively. They soon skittled NW for 170 to win convincingly.
In the lowest scoring match of the week, Easterns beat Mpumalanga by seven wickets when they met in Benoni. Mpumalanga were bowled out for 62 thanks to a brilliant effort from Sibongile Makamo, who took four for 11 in eight overs. It took Easterns just nine overs to reach the target.
In the last match of the weekend, old rivals Border and Eastern Province (EP) met in East London where the visitors came out the winners. EP won the toss and batted first, setting a target of 156 for the host to win. J Nell was the stand-out batter, scoring a rapid 55 from 56 balls while Border’s M Kirchoff took five wickets for 36 runs.
Good bowling from Marizanne Kapp and L Pienaar who took three wickets each with Nell providing back-up with her two helped to remove the hosts for 136 and give their side a 19-run victory.