Standard Bank League: KwaZulu-Natal v Border, Preview (28 January 1999)
Graham Ford begins his last weekend coaching the Natal cricket team with a Standard Bank League day/night game against Border in East London Friday and he will know that a win will be necessary if his temporary successor, Ian Tayfield, is to be
28-Jan-1999
28 January 1999
Standard Bank League: KwaZulu-Natal v Border, Preview
Ken Borland
Graham Ford begins his last weekend coaching the Natal cricket team
with a Standard Bank League day/night game against Border in East
London Friday and he will know that a win will be necessary if his
temporary successor, Ian Tayfield, is to be guaranteed a place in the
Standard Bank Cup.
Tayfield, a Natal spinner in the 1970s, will take over when Ford
leaves for New Zealand and his new job as assistant coach of the
national squad on February 9.
A Natal side with an interesting mixture of youth and battle-hardened
experience will take on Border, and Western Province on Sunday at
Kingsmead, knowing that two wins should see them finish in the top
five on the log and guaranteed of a place in the Cup quarter-finals.
Recent Maritzburg College pupils Grant Rowley and Kevin Pieterson join
old boys Mark Bruyns, Doug Watson and Anthony Botha and fellow U20s
Wade Wingfield and Jon Kent.
Errol Stewart will captain the side in the absence of Dale
Benkenstein, who is in the national squad along with fellow Natalians
Jonty Rhodes, Shaun Pollock and Lance Klusener, while Andrew Hudson
will return to the opener's spot in the team.
The Border team will feature two former Natalians - batsman Craig
Sugden and paceman Tyrone Henderson - who, given their tremendous
successes since moving to East London, could certainly have helped the
Dolphins in their troubled season.
Playing Border in East London is always a daunting task and Natal will
need all the help they can get against a side that now boasts a fine
pace attack in Henderson, Vasbert Drakes and Makhaya Ntini.
Ntini will be particularly keen to impress the day after he was left
out of the national team to tour New Zealand, as will Border's
hard-hitting, but underrated batsmen, Wayne Wiblin and Pieter Strydom.
The age-old saying about limited-overs cricket being impossible to
predict is certainly true, but the fact remains that Natal will have
done exceedingly well to travel to East London and return triumphant
against a confident and well-equipped side.
The Standard Bank League's main game today is the top-of-the-log clash
between Gauteng and Northerns at the Wanderers.
Squads
Border: Brad White, Wayne Wiblin, Piet Botha, Pieter Strydom
(capt), Craig Sugden, Steven Pope, George Hammond, Ian Mitchell,
Vasbert Drakes, Tyrone Henderson, Makhaya Ntini, Brenden Fourie (12th
man).
Natal: Doug Watson, Andrew Hudson, Errol Stewart (capt), Mark
Bruyns, Jon Kent, Grant Rowley, Wade Wingfield, Anthony Botha, Keith
Storey, Jannie Dreyer, Gary Gilder, Kevin Pieterson.
Source :: Ken Borland