Western Cape beat Highveld in a low-scoring match to clinch their fourth consecutive Cricket South Africa (CSA) Women’s Super Fours T20 title at St Alban’s College in Pretoria on Sunday. The side were unbeaten in the competition and victorious for the seventh straight year.
They won the toss and chose to bowl first on a field that had residual moisture after overnight rain. Highveld could only manage 79/7 in their 20 overs with Mignon du Preez top-scoring with 39 at a run a ball. Shabnim Ismail and Robin Appels were the leading wicket-takers, claiming 2/5 and 2/17 respectively.
The chase did not go according to plan as the top order was scuttled cheaply before skipper, Alexis le Breton, arrived at the crease. Le Breton could only manage 24 off 21 balls, before she was removed.
The chief destroyers were Kelebogile Malevu, who took 3/14 in three overs, and Yumna Plowker, 3/14 in her four overs.
Western Cape relied on the calm minds of their experienced players, Ismail (7*) and Sunette Loubser (2*), to scramble to a two-wicket victory, after they were eight down for 70, with just three overs to go.
Le Breton was proud of her side’s effort and for managing to win even after things looked bleak. “It’s a huge honour to lead a side like this at such a high level.
“The number of national players in the side makes it really easy for me as a leader because the senior players mentor the juniors and lend their experience when we reach sticky situations. I’m happy that we were able to still pull off a win after things got tough,” said le Breton.
Western Cape Coach, Cobus Roodt, was delighted with the win but unhappy with the performance on the day. “I won’t say we played our best cricket today,” he said. “We were a little lethargic in the field, but as the saying goes, ‘a win is a win, even if it’s ugly!’”
“We’ve got a lot of work to do when we get home, but that’s the beauty of cricket. Even if you are a top side it always finds a way to keep you grounded and humble, so we’ll go home and fix what needs fixing and make sure we produce another top performance in the next tournament.”
In the other match of the day, Central finished the tournament without recording a win, after they suffered a narrow two-run loss to East Coast.
Photo Caption: The victorious Western Cape Super Fours T20 team, which beat Highveld to record their fourth consecutive annual tournament at St Alban’s College in Pretoria, on Sunday, 1 December, 2013. Photo: Cricket SA on Facebook
(With editing by gsport)
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