Matches drawn, but teams fought till the end

AFTER some good cricket, fine individual performances and intense competition, the Senior Provincial Men’s tournament wound down on Sunday with both three-day matches ending in entertaining draws.

Day three of the match between Western Province and eta Northerns in Group C, Pool D of the tournament at the Kimberley Oval saw Northerns continuing their first innings with their score on 48/3 after 16.1 overs at the close of play on Saturday, still 62 runs shy of WP’s first innings total.

Northerns eventually declared their first innings closed on 253/8, with Merrick Brett scoring 69 and Kiel van Vollenhoven weighing in with 23. The best of the Province bowlers were Ryan Klein 5/60 and David Schierhout 2/63.

In their second innings WP fared much better after losing their first wicket with the score on 46. The Cape boys reached 127/1 with Zachary Elkin on 78 not out and Bonga Makaka not out on 29, before the match was called.

Meanwhile, over at the Country Club B field where Northern Cape Cricket picked up from their overnight score of 199/6, making it to 261 in 94.5 overs. Top scorers for NCC were Blake Shraader (97), Ernest Kemm (42) and Garnett Tarr (21), while the best of the SA Under-19 bowlers were Joshua Stevenson 2/36, Andile Simelane 2/21, Michael Copeland 2/58 and Celeb Seleka 2/87.

The Under-19 pushed the run rate in their second knock and declared their second innings closed on 144/3. Daniel Smith (76) and Kaden Solomons (43) shone with the bat, while Desmond de Koker’s 2/15 kept the game interesting for the hosts.

Northern Cape Cricket were left requiring 214 for victory, but by the time NCC reached 77/3 in the run chase, with Ernest Kemm not out on 36 and Blake Schraader not out on 16, they had run out of time and the captains shook hands.