Its a WP vs KZN Inland Khaya Majola "main" game

 

The Khaya Majola Week ends in Stellenbosch today with Western Province meeting Kwa-Zulu Natal Inland on the main field – the Coetzenberg Oval at Maties – in the “main game” of the week.

 It will be the week’s unofficial final, although it’s a festival, and there isn’t supposed to be an overall winner. Although there was a period, from 1996 to about 2001, when the, then, Coke Week was a limited-overs knockout tournament, played in two sections with cross-pool playoffs, semi-finals and a final, a winner’s trophy, and classification games all the way down to last position. That later changed and the week reverted to the festival format, with the only prize (apart for SA Schools and Colts selection) being a spot in that final game.

 It was also decided to introduce other formats – time cricket and T20 – so a knockout tournament wasn’t possible.

 This year, it has been a four day festival of 50-over games only, so it could have been a tournament. It sort of panned out that way. The second day was washed out, so those results were disregarded and on the basis of the 1^st day results, WP met Northwest and KZN Inland played the Central Gauteng Lions, with the winners going though to the showpiece fixture.

 The Lions were the defending champions, having beaten the Titans in Potch last year, and they have been in more “finals” than anyone else, including eight times in the last 11 years. They aren’t there this year, though, and few can argue that WP and Inland don’t deserve to be the finalists.

 The fixtures for the final day are:

Western Province vs KwaZulu-Natal Inland (Maties A, Coetzenberg Oval); Central Gauteng Lions vs Titans (Maties B, Tassies Oval); Boland vs KwaZulu-Natal Coastal (Paul Roos Gim); North West vs Free State (Maties C); Northern Cape vs Easterns (Maties D); Garden Route Badgers vs Eastern Province (Van der Stel); Border vs Limpopo (Distell); Namibia Cheetahs vs Mpumalanga (Bridgehouse); Namibia Welwitschias vs Border Kei (Spes Bona).

It's been an unusual week as far as individual performances go. It certainly hasn’t been the runfest we have been accustomed to. There was one hundred made on Saturday – exactly 100 by Romashan Pillay of KZN Coastal against Easterns – and a further four half centuries, making it just three centuries going into the final day, although half a day was lost to the rain. The wickets were always going to be low and slow, and the howling wind on day one didn’t help. Then the rain on Friday slowed the outfields down on Saturday making run-scoring even more difficult.

 There will, we hope, be some sparkling performances on the final day.  

Summarised Scores – Day 3

Northwest 85 (Dewald du Plessis 37; Liyema Waqu 4/38, Abdullah Bayoumy 2/9, Cameron Fraser 2/24); Western Province 87/5 (Maahir Joseph 31, Juan James 27; Samuel Bobraine 2/19, Paballo Madisa 2/42). Western Province won by five wickets. 

Boland 173/9 (William September 41, Nathan Jacobs 38*, Riley Norton 28; Leo Sadler 3/22, Tristan Luus 2/56); Titans 174/3 (Christiaan du Toit 77, Bhamji Suleman 72*; Riley Norton 3/37). Titans won by seven wickets.

Central Gauteng Lions 157 (Thebe Gazide 34, Neil Timmers 28, Richard Seletswane 20; Nathan Beaumont 3/20, Matipa Denenga 2/18); KwaZulu-Natal Inland 161/5 (Jason Muirhead 76, Jake Carstens 44*; Kwena Maphaka 3/39). KwaZulu-Natal Inland won by five wickets.

KwaZulu-Natal Coastal 220/5 (Romashan Pillay 100, Aryan Gopalan 42, Evan Fouché 31; Martin Khumalo 3/42); Easterns 148 (Simele Maye 44, Jeandré Byleveld 35; Sagel Rajakumar 2/10, Ryan Jairaj 2/11, Aryan Gopalan 2/23). KwaZulu-Natal Coastal won by 72 runs.

Free State 205/9 (Foster Lubbe 68, Khanyisile Nondwangu 31, Thabiso Nkoe 27*, Samokelo Lepheto 27; Simnikile Soyaya 3/39, Aphiwe Mnyanda 2/43); Eastern Province 103 (Casey Keevy 38, Ashley Ostling 22; Johnathan Muller 4/13, Foster Lubbe 2/13, Dakalo Leketa 2/17). Free State won by 102 runs.

Border 135 (Tre Gilbert 62, Ryan Denston 23; Kamvalihle Qusheka 2/5, Liyabonga Malefi 2/6, Charl-Francois Marais 2/13, Ewald de Jager 2/21, Thurstin Murphy 2/24); Garden Route Badgers 111 (Thurstin Murphy 32, Extras 27, Liyabonga Malefi 26; Tyler Stagg 3/25, Ryan Denston 2/23). Border won by 24 runs.

Mpumalanga 102 (Sphumelelo Madonsela 21, Hannes Feuth 21, Extras 20; Tumiso Seetelo 4/23, Monnapule Jansen 2/13, Paseka Jonker 2/24); Northern Cape 105/3 (Igsaan Alexander 43, Kgotso Motlwai 37). Northern Cape won by seven wickets.

Namibia Welwitchias 104 (Jandré Botha 25; Khaif Patel 2/4, Ntemi Madimola 2/16, Masilo Moremi 2/18, Gideon Goosen 2/43); Limpopo 105/5 (Shelton Ngobeni 45; Nico Pieters 2/21, Ben Burger 2/22). Limpopo won by five wickets.

Namibia Cheetahs 254 (JC Balt 70, Gerhard Janse van Rensburg 54, Extras 34, Hansie de Villiers 24; Esam Mpafa 5/60, Faiz Shaik 2/39); Kei 114 (Ntsika Ngqukumba 26, Extras 29, Thabiso Rebert 20*; PD Blignaut 3/11, JC Balt 3/22, Dirkie Theunissen 2/8). Namibia Cheetahs won by 140 runs.