Second win for Free State over game Northerns
Free State beat plucky Northerns by three wickets with 11 balls to spare, but the match was a far closer contest than it might have been
Telford Vice
11-Oct-2000
Free State beat plucky Northerns by three wickets with 11 balls to spare, but the match was a far closer contest than it might have been.
Northerns' total of 191 for eight seemed woefully inadequate on a sound
batting pitch and in the face of Free State's competent batting line-up.
However, the home side made heavy weather of their reply before reaching 194
for seven in 43.1 overs.
Free State's second win as many matches - and that after they failed to win
a home game in either competition last summer - had much to do with their
captain, Gerard Brophy, who was duly named man-of-the-match.
The former Gauteng player effected five dismissals behind the stumps and
then marshalled his team's batting superbly with a cameo 47 off 68 balls.
Brophy threatened to undo all of his good work when he glanced a catch to
his livewire wicketkeeping counterpart, Kruger van Wyk, off the erratic but
penetrative Pierre Joubert in the 40th over with 16 runs still required and
not much batting to come.
However, Herman Bakkes calmly took on the responsibility of seeing Free
State home with Victor Mpitsang showing a good deal of batting chutzpah,
though not technique.
Wiaan Smit and Brophy had put Free State back on track with a sixth-wicket
stand of 48 after they slipped to 82 for five in the 18th over.
Veteran Steve Elworthy bowled with all his old verve with the new ball, but
he was let down by his support staff.
Northerns' first wicket tumbled before they had put a run on the board, and
much of the rest of their innings lurched along in similarly unhappy
fashion.
They were reduced to 58 for five in the 21st over before Martin van
Jaarsveld finally found worthy support in the shape of Finley Brooker, who
helped him add 99 for the sixth wicket. However, Brooker's dismissal by
Johannes Mokoenanyana in the 39th over probably represented the difference
between Northerns posting a mediocre and a respectable target.
Van Jaarsveld was 88 not out off 110 balls with five fours.