Mall brightens lacklustre match

Ashraf Mall's career-best 77 brightened and otherwise lacklustre match, which Natal won by five wickets with 3.4 overs to spare.

Boland seemed to try and do their best to get it wrong with the bat, and they succeeded in totalling a mediocre 167 for six. Natal endured a wobble or two of their own before reaching 171 for five to complete their third consecutive victory.

That Boland came as close as they did to a respectable total was almost entirely due to an unbroken stand of 79 struck off 84 balls by Steven Palframan and Con de Lange, a seventh-wicket record for the Wine Farmers. Palframan, the experience of his 93 matches coming through, was 56 not out off 68 balls with seven fours. Nineteen-year-old De Lange played beyond his years in finishing unbeaten on 30.

The rest of Boland's batting was more than a bit like the plot from Dumb and Dumber - one silly stroke followed another and not one visiting batsman can claim to have lost his wicket to a threatening delivery.

That said, Natal bowled an intelligent length on a pitch that hinted at harbouring varying bounce. Jon Kent and Eldine Baptiste got it right more often than not in taking three for 27 and two for 16 respectively.

Mall then showed the Bolanders how it should be done with a polished innings off 102 balls with 11 fours. Playing in only his third Standard Bank game, Mall's other scores are 71 and 40.

The left-handed opener's knock was central to Natal's innings. He featured in partnerships of 50 off 66 deliveries for the second wicket with Andrew Hudson, who drove lazily at a ball from Bradley Player to be caught at short cover for 22, and 64 off 82 for the third with Kent, who top-edged his cut off left-arm spinner De Lange to backward point on 27.

Man-of-the-match Mall eventually drove a ball from spinner Justin Ontong uppishly to mid-off in the 35th over.