Leie makes successful return from injury

Cape Town - Proteas wrist spinner Eddie Leie made a successful return to first-class action after a career-threatening injury with his 10th five-wicket haul in the latest round of Sunfoil Cup provincial three-day matches. 

It has been a traumatic period for the 29-year-old, who was warned that his career was under threat after suffering an injury to his bowling hand.

He made a cautious comeback for Gauteng in the recent Africa T20 Cup competition and this performance for Gauteng against Eastern Province of 5/67 in 20.5 overs will have done a lot to boost his confidence. In the process he took his 200th first-class wicket.

Another bowler in top form was Border’s evergreen 32-year-old, Phaphama Fojela, who took 9 wickets in the match for Border against North West. This match, as was the case with the Gauteng-Eastern Province encounter, finished in a draw in spite of these bowling efforts. 

There were also five-wicket hauls for Kyle Simmonds (6/55 for Boland against KZN Inland), Attie Maposa (5/65 in the same match) in another drawn encounter, and Werner Coetsee (5/11) for Northern Cape.

Northern Cape were the only outright winners over the weekend, beating KZN by 225 runs. 

There were only two centuries with Yassen Valli scoring an unbeaten 150 for Gauteng, and Brady Barends an unbeaten 105 for North West. Other players to get close to three figures were Keegan Petersen of Boland (94), Gionne Koopman of Border (90) and Patrick Kruger of Northern Cape (86). 

The CSA Provincial Challenge One-day matches were badly affected by the weather with no play possible in the matches between Gauteng and Eastern Province and KZN versus Northern Cape. 

Christiaan Jonker’s 106 off 71 balls enabled Border to beat North West by 3 runs. For the latter Richardt Frenz made an unbeaten 96 off 130 balls.