Rain halts Northerns recovery battle

Centurion: It was not quite the provincial captaincy debut Neil McKenzie had in mind yesterday when he took over as Northerns new leader.

What we had was a belly landing after attempting to scramble what was dodgy single and then looking up at umpire Cyril Mitchley signalling he had been run out. The result was McKenzie being one of four Northerns wickets to fall in a truncated first session as they put only 55 runs on the board.

Not at all a great start to the Super Eights in the SuperSport Series as the tougher part of the first-class domestic programme began at home on a decidedly damp, chilly afternoon more in keeping with England in May than sunny South Africa in December.

McKenzie had been looking good too, and from all accounts, would decided to bat first anyway had he won the toss. Boland?s skipper Louis Koen got the call right instead and decided, with so much cloud cover around and a touch of moisture on the pitch, the best option was to bowl first.

Whether it was because Koen did not quite trust his side batting first in such conditions against Steve Elworthy, Greg Smith and Dave Townsend is unclear, but apart from Martin van Jaarsveld who received what is described as a ``good nut'' in the fast bowling trade, Northerns must admit they made a hash of it.

No doubt Koen wanted to show his bowlers how he supported them and birthday boy Charl Willoughby gave as good an impression as anyone of how to use the conditions and move the ball around. There was a good bit of swing and enough sideways movement to make Shaun Pollock to lick his lips in anticipation of a five-wicket haul.

Anyone with figures of 7.5-5-6-2 should smile. About the only aspect of the game which did not play along with Willoughbys quest for further success was the weather.

Rudolf Steyn seemed as though he was carrying on from where he left off against Eastern Province in the day/night slogs and an expansive shot was dragged into his stumps. Johan Myburgh deflected a defensive prod to Kenny Jackson at first slip and McKenzie, after looked decidedly comfortable threw it away with his suicide mission.

He was batting nicely too: knew where his off-stump was, knew when to leave the ball alone too and drove comfortably. Organised and looking to build to his growing reputation before Justin Ontong, from the vicinity of backward point, threw the stumps down one a single motion and which would have brought a touch of appreciation from Jonty Rhodes or Herschelle Gibbs.

McKenzies boundary of Henry Williams was a classic drive into the gap square of the wicket; crisp and neatly placed. Gerald Dros also batted with confidence and used his reach to good effect making Charl Angeveldt pay for bowling off-line with his direction finder badly misfiring: five boundaries, four scored by the elegant Dros, was as good as anything we have seen this season.

Watching all this was the coach Peter Kirsten, the man who is not afraid to make the tough choices and for Northerns, with four victories needed if they hoped to reach the final, rejigging the side was possibly the easiest option.

Making them work is up to the players and for that we will have to wait and see.