Young Guns Mpongwana, Smith step up after Moreki bowling blitz

March 2022

The third round of the CSA One-Day Cup got underway in Cape Town where the Gbets Warriors were put in to bat first after Six Gun Grill Western Province won the toss and elected to field at Six Gun Grill Newlands.

The Warriors slumped to 61/5 in the 24th over after the collapse of their top order. Kyle Simmonds trapped Jon-Jon Smuts lbw before he could score any runs and Beuran Hendricks had Wihan Lubbe edge to keeper, Daniel Smith with ten runs in the sixth over.

Lesiba Ngoepe also edged to keeper off Tshepo Moreki’s bowling with just three runs. George Linde clean-bowled Rudi Second (19) and Basheeru-Deen Walters dismissed Diego Rosier with 12 runs.

Tiaan van Vuuren top scored with 47 runs for the Warriors before his dismissal by Hendricks. And, in an effort to rebuild the innings, Tristan Stubbs (33) and Sinethemba Qeshile (31) were both dismissed by Moreki, creating more problems for the Warriors.

Linde also dismissed Glenton Stuurman (1), Moreki ended off with Mthiwekhaya Nabe (4), Akhona Mnyaka only had 6* runs and Warriors were all out for 173 runs.

Western Province did not get off to a good start in their defence after they plummeted to 44/5 in 12 overs.

Stuurman clean-bowled Richard Levi for a duck, Mnyaka dismissed Yaseen Vallie with just three runs and Van Vuuren claimed the early wickets of Tony de Zorzi (14), Gavin Kaplan (19), and Linde (0).

Daniel Smith (50) and Mihlali Mpongwana (61*) tried to restore the innings, but their 79-run stand was disrupted by a clean ball from Smuts, dismissing Smith.

Mpongwana stood firm in restoring the innings with an unbeaten 61*, he shared 20 runs with Simmonds (9) and 32-runs with Hendricks (13) to help the Western Province to a successful run-chase and a three-wicket win.