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Bloemfontein - Johan van der Wath and Obus Pienaar served up a devastating display of power-hitting to lead the Chevrolet Knights to a four-wicket win over the Nashua Dolphins in their MTN40 first-leg semi-final at the OUTsurance Oval in Bloemfontein on Sunday.
But Van der Wath blasted his way to 29 not out off 14 balls while striking one four and three sixes while Pienaar was no less effective as he strode to 31 not out off 20 balls which included four fours and a six.
The right-handed duo plundered 17 runs off the 37th over before they tore into seamer Kyle Abbott in the 38th over as they pummelled 25 runs off the unfortunate bowler as the home side reached 227 for six to secure victory with 10 balls of their innings remaining.
Van der Wath and Pienaar eventually added 54 runs off just 3.5 overs for the seventh-wicket as the Knights took a one-nil lead in the best of three semi-final series.
The Knights endured a horror start to their innings as they slumped to five for two and then 29 for three.
Abbott was at the heart of the Knights’ collapse as he sent down an opening spell of 5-1-9-2. However his figures took a pounding after the Van der Wath/Pienaar show as the bowler ended with figures of two for 37 off seven overs.
Morne van Wyk (0) was out off the first ball of the innings in remarkable fashion when a delivery from medium-pacer Jon Kent clipped to top of the off stump bail but not hard enough to dislodge the bail.
Umpire Dennis Smith heard the sound of the ball clipping the bail and gave Van Wyk out caught behind.
Reeza Hendricks and Dean Elgar then rescued the home side with a fourth-wicket stand of 109 off 19.3 overs.
Hendricks made his way to 64 off 83 balls before he shuffled across his stumps to a Quinton Friend delivery and was trapped lbw by the fast bowler.
Nine runs later the Dolphins looked to have taken a stranglehold on the match when leg-spinner Imran Tahir removed Elgar leg-before after the left-handed batsman had scored 58 off 66 balls.
Ryan McLaren (19) was next to depart, caught behind by keeper Daryn Smit off medium-pacer Ravi Bopara, before Van der Wath and Pienaar stole the show.
Bopara had earlier underlined his importance to the Dolphins as his half-century helped his team to 226 for seven.
Bopara’s fifty was his fourth of the season for his adopted team and the England international eventually made his way to 64 off 75 balls with seven fours before falling to left-arm seamer Jandre Coetzee.
However, the KwaZulu-Natal franchise would have been disappointed with their final total as their top six batsmen all reached double figures but only Bopara managed to bat on for any length of time, with the next best score being 35 from Ahmed Amla
The Dolphins were stymied by a disciplined Knights’ bowling attack that successfully took the pace off the ball to hinder adventurous strokeplay which resulted in a regular fall of wickets.
The upshot of the loss of wickets was that the Dolphins were unable to put together a big partnership with the best being a fourth-wicket stand of 46 between Vaughn van Jaarsveld (24) and Bopara.
Coetzee (7-0-33-2) and seamer Victor Mpitsang (8-1-28-1) were at the heart of the home side’s bowling efforts after the Dolphins had looked set for a formidable total as they scored 68 runs off the first 10 overs of their innings.
The Dolphins slipped to 169 for five when Bopara was fooled by a slower ball bouncer from Coetzee and he was too early on his pull shot which resulted in the ball bouncing off the back of his bat into the gloves of keeper Van Wyk.
Glen Addicott (2) did not last long before David Miller (34) and Smit (22 not out) provided the innings with some late impetus with a seventh-wicket partnership of 37 off five overs before Miller was run out off the penultimate ball of the innings.
McLaren was not at his best but this season’s leading wicket-taker managed to finish with figures of two for 44 off seven overs.
The next match in the series takes place in Durban on Friday.
Teams
Nashua Dolphins – Imraan Khan (capt), Ahmed Amla, Ravi Bopara, Vaughn van Jaarsveld, David Miller, Glen Addicott, Jon Kent, Khaya Zondo, Daryn Smit (wk), Kyle Abbott, Quinton Friend, Imran Tahir, Keshav Maharaj.
Chevrolet Knights – Morne van Wyk (capt, wk), Reeza Hendricks, Rilee Rossouw, Dean Elgar, Ryan Bailey, Adrian McLaren, Ryan McLaren, Johan van der Wath, Obus Pienaar, Con de Lange, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Jandre Coetzee, Victor Mpitsang.
