The Dafabet Warriors showed too much all-round quality to crush the Moothee Ram Tuskers by 54 runs in their CSA T20 Challenge match at the City Oval in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday.
Batting first, the Warriors made 181-7 with opener Muhammad Manack and skipper Matthew de Villiers striking excellent half-centuries.
Despite a late collapse, the visitors had way too many runs for the home team as the Tuskers subsided to 127 in their knock.
The defeat means the Tuskers – with only one victory in five games – are out of the competition while the Warriors are right in the mix for the playoffs.
Defeat for the newly promoted Tuskers was made worse by the fact that two of their key players, Hardus Viljoen and Cameron Shekleton, were both injured while fielding.
Viljoen twisted an ankle and Shekleton dislocated his shoulder. Neither was able to bat and the Tuskers’ innings was completed after 18 overs after they had reached 127-8.
Only two batters, opener Chad Laycock with 37 in 38 balls and Ntando Zuma with a run-a-ball 33, batted for any length of time against a disciplined Warriors’ attack in which left-arm wrist spinner Thomas Kaber (2-16 in four overs) was the most impressive.
CJ King and Kurwin Mungroo also collected a couple of scalps each.
BURST BALLOON
At least the match had a higher entertainment value than the Tuskers' abject defeat at the hands of Western Province earlier in the week.
This was largely due to a much better pitch with the ball coming on to the bat a little more readily and the bounce being more even.
The Warriors had batted first after the Tuskers won the toss and put them in.
On the face of it the visitors should have been satisfied with their total, but they will reflect that they should have gone past the 200 mark considering they were 156-2 halfway through the 17th over with Matthew de Villiers and Matthew Breetzke pounding the bowling all around The Oval in a partnership of 45 in four overs.
But when De Villiers, in a rich vein of form, was dismissed for 54 in 40 balls, the innings deflated like a burst balloon with the Warriors losing five wickets for 17 runs, all of them soft as the batters showed poor discipline and technique as they chased runs.
The main beneficiary was pace bowler Bamanye Xenxe who picked up 4-41 in his four overs despite receiving some early punishment.
Tuskers’ skipper Michael Erlank claimed 2-21 in his spell while left-arm spinner Sean Whitehead took 1-33.
The late clatter of wickets was a relief to the Tuskers who had received some harsh punishment in the first half of the visitors’ innings with opener Muhammad Manack (54 in 34 balls including nine fours) particularly aggressive up front, giving himself room to crash many of his boundaries through the off side off some loose bowling.
Manack and De Villiers added a sparkling 94 for the second wicket before Manack was caught at cow corner.
As it turned out, only three batters, Manack, De Villiers and Breetzke, reached double figures with Breetzke cracking a sparkling 39 in 19 balls with four fours and two sixes.
MOOTHEE RAM TUSKERS: Andile Mogakane, Michael Erlank (capt), Wayne Parnell, Ntando Zuma (wkt), Cameron Shekleton, Hardus Viljoen, Sean Whitehad, Sean Gilson, Marcello Piedt, Chad Laycock, Bamanye Xenxe
WARRIORS: Modiri Litheko, Muhammed Manack, Matthew de Villiers (capt), Matthew Breetzke (wkt) JP King, Patrick Kruger, Thomas Kaber, CJ King, Aphiwe Mnyanda, Wesley Bedja, Kerwin Mungroo
