Boland ladies bow to Western Province
2007-04-12
Jacques Rossouw
THE Boland ladies cricket team narrowly lost by one wicket to Western Province in the final of the National Women’s One-day Competition at Boland Park on Saturday.
Boland entered the game as hot favourites having beaten WP in both their encounters during the round-robin stages.
Having won the toss, Province elected to field first and managed an early breakthrough by dismissing the Boland opener, Sunette Loubser, in the first over.
Audrey Petersen (26) and Leighshé Jacobs (29) absorbed the pressure well and increased the run-rate before the second wicket fell for 60 runs in the tenth over.
The remaining Boland batsmen struggled to keep the momentum going and failed to establish any big partnerships.
The home team was bowled out in the 42nd over for 138 with Alexis le Bretton (2/27 in 10), Shibnam Ismail (2/11 in 6) and Ashlyn Kilowan (2/43 in 5) doing most of the damage for the visitors.
The Province innings got off to a flying start with a 45-run partnership between captain Olivia Anderson (33) and Le Bretton (10).
Great bowling and even better fielding by Boland shifted the pressure back onto the Province-players. A few quick wickets and three run-outs put the Bolanders back into the game.
At the start of the final over WP had to score seven runs from six deliveries with only one wicket remaining.
With three balls remaining and four runs still needed to win, the province-batsmen decided to take a suicide-run. The ball was fielded instantly and flung towards the stumps.
The ball missed the target and with no-one backing up behind the wickets, it rolled over the boundary rope for four byes.
“It was such a disappointment to see the ball roll over the boundary,” Boland’s wicket-keeper, Ilse Langhout, commented afterwards.
“That’s the way cricket is. Aside from the overthrow, I think we lost the game with our batting. We didn’t score enough runs to pose a decent, defendable total, but we did bowl and field well. We are now looking forward to next season.”
One of the umpires, Trevor Davy, said that it was one of the closest games he’s had to officiate.
“It really was a tight game. Until the final over it was difficult to say who was going to win. Boland seemed to have it in the bag, but they were very unfortunate to lose.”
Sunette Loubser (2/23 in 10) and Nathanael Christiaans (2/29 in 10) were the pick of Boland’s bowlers and were well supported by Claire Terblanche (1/13 in 10).
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