From: mabg1084@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Mark Alan Brodie)
Subject: SA Castle Cup
Summary: round 5 of SA castle cup
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1992 23:28:03 GMT
Keywords: South Africa Castle Cup Transvaal

I recently received the following from South Africa: (thus the "I"
in the rest of this posting is not me!)

News of the 5th round of Castle Cup matches, which provided some 
exciting cricket.

Tvl vs Border, Wanderers: Tvl won by 196 runs
Tvl 1st inns: 299 (S. Jacobs 83*, M. Yachad 61, J. Cook 28)
Border 1st inns: 160 (O. Gibson 83* {57 balls, 8x4, 6x6}; R. Snell 6/33 -
 career-best figures)
Tvl 2nd inns: 234/6 decl (J. Cook 97*, L. Seeff 38, D. Cullinan 38)
Border 2nd inns: 162 (M. Stonier 64, P. Strydom 31, G. Victor 28;
 S. Jack 4/47, R. Snell 4/54)
This synopsis, however, doesn't tell the true story of the match, most
of which I watched live. Tvl started batting at a fair pace on Saturday
morning (day 1), but when Cook went with the score at around 60, things
slowed down, especially since wickets began falling quite regularly. Jacobs
steadied things a bit, and was not out overnight with 38-or-so. On Sunday
morning, he was helped out by Eksteen, who stuck around for a while to make
22, but Tvl were finally all out about half an hour before lunch. Snell
struck quickly in the Border innings, and they'd lost one wicket at lunch.
After lunch, it became a procession - something like (unfortunately I
don't have the full score-card on me now) 11/1, 22/2, 25/3 ... 48/7. At
this point, Gibson entered the fray, and wasted no time at all, getting
his eye in with 2 fours and a 6 off the first few balls he faced from
Snell. Border were 9 wickets down and had not yet averted the follow-on, but
Gibson did this in fine style - with a six - and then cracked another
monstrous six, which hit the top of the Centenary pavilion! When bad
light stopped play early (this happened on each of the first 3 days of
the match, but not too much time was lost because play would start early
the next morning), Tvl were 2 for 1, Gibson having removed Brad White, who
opened the innings with Yachad (Cook came in at no. 5). On Monday,
Yachad was run out early, and then Seeff and Cullinan batted comfortably
for quite a while. After the two of them were gone, Cook had clearly
decided that quick runs were what was needed, and after he'd reached his
50, he batted very aggressively. At tea he was on 97, but stuck to the
original game-plan of declaring at tea. This left Border about 140 overs
to make 374 - quite a moderate run-rate. Not much more play was possible
after tea, bad light stopping play early, and then a vicious thunderstorm
preventing any thoughts of further play that day. Tuesday morning dawned,
but about 50 minutes of play were lost due to rain. At lunch, Border were
107/3 after 36 overs. Relatively brisk scoring was possible due to an
ultra-attacking field set by Cook - sometimes 4 slips and 2 gullies. Near
the end of lunch, however, the rain arrived again, and although it let up
briefly and the players took to the field, it returned soon after, and a
further 160 mins was lost.After the players took the field again, 
Tvl removed the last 7 wickets in 22 overs, with 6 overs of the game 
remaining. Snell got 4 of the last 6 wickets. Apparently,
Cook had 6 slips and a gully at one point! Snell's match figures of 10/87
earned him man of the match. 
Crowd attendance throughout the match was paltry - I think the glut of
international cricket has made the local game less atractive to people.

NTvl vs OFS, Centurion Park: OFS won by 4 wickets.
NTvl 1st inns: 388 ( J. Strydom 105, M. Haysman 82, M. Rindel79;
 Pretorius 4/102)
OFS: 246 (O. Henry 75*, F. Stephenson 42, R. Steyn 34; S. Elworthy 4/42)
NTvl 2nd inns: 100 (D. van Zyl 36; F. Stephenson 3/24)
OFS 2nd inns: 243/6 (Steyn 82*, L. Wilkinson 50; P. Newport 5/79)
Once again, the stats don't do justice to the excitement at the end of
match - mostly caused by the weather. On the final day, OFS needed to
make 241 runs at about 2 to the over. But the rain intervened, and after
40mm had fallen, the pitch was apparently more suited to watersports than
cricket! The umpires ruled the ground unfit, but left it to the captains,
and Haysman sportingly agreed to go on with the game. 130 runs were needed
at 6.5 to the over, and the target was reached with 5 balls and 4 wickets
to spare. Had van Zyl not been dropped when 46 runs were needed off 9 overs,
the OFS middle order might have been put under more pressure. But it seems
poor NTvl are destined not to win this season! OFS get the full 6 points, 
and NTvl 2.

WP vs EP, Newlands: EP won by 8 wickets.
WP 1st inns: 278 (A. Lamb 121, G. Kirsten 65; R Bryson 5/66)
EP 1st inns: 350 (V. Michau 86, L. Koen 54, E. Baptiste 40, M. Rushmere
 36, P. Tullis 33*, B. Schultz 31; Tullis & Schultz added 54 for the last
 wicket, Schultz being dropped twice; D. Machelm 3/58, E. Simons 3/83)
WP 2nd inns: 202 (Simons 57, A. Holdstock 37, Kirsten 36; Bryson 5/55,
 Schultz 3/45, P. Rayment 2/11 off 13)
EP 2nd inns: 134/2 (P. Amm 52, M. Rushmere 50*)
No drama from the weather here - perfect sunshine throughout. A minor
piece of drama was provided when Kirsten had to be helped off the field
after being struck on the elbow by a Bryson delivery in WP's 2nd inns.
The ball apparently hit a nerve, and Kirsten actually fainted when he
reached thedressing room. But he was able to return.
 So, after 5 rounds, the log looks like this (headings: played, won,
 lost, drawn 1st inns pts, total pts)

EP:     5; 2; 1; 2; 8; 16
OFS:    4; 2; -; 2; 4; 14
WP:     4; 2; 1; 1; 6; 14
Tvl:    4; 2; -; 2; 4; 12
Natal:  4; 2; 1; 1; 4; 12
Border: 5; 1; 4; -; 2; 6
NTvl:   4; -; 4; -; 2; 2

It looks like any of the top 5 teams could still win it.

Other cricket news is that a Sri Lanka under-24 side is coming out for
a month-long tour in January. They play 3 one-day games (2 against
provincial under-24 sides and 1 against an SA under-24 side), four 3-day
games against provincial sides, and one 4-day "test" against an SA side.
No games are played at the Wanderers, but Centurion Park hosts both the
one-day "international" and the "test". Six test players have been
included in the Sri Lankan squad of 14, and SA test players Rhodes, Cronje,
and Schultz are eligible for the SA team.


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