Mighty Maties sink Vredenburg to win the Boland Premier League
The scene was set for a riveting winner takes all final match at Coetzenburg as high flying visitors Vredenburg Saldahna arrived on the back of 5 successive wins knowing that a win against Maties would see them crowned Champs. The Maties had also played brilliant cricket the previous day when a Lenert Van Wyk (82) and Faan Fourie (5 wickets) inspired performance had seen them dismantle Paarl East by 150 runs.
Henno Jordaan won yet another crucial toss and elected to bat first, and the visitors must of thought they were off to a great start when the skipper Jordaan was dismissed for a second ball duck, however this brought a very focused Emile Kriek (44) to the crease to join the experienced Ramela (44) as they set about creating a stabilising partnership with some powerful striking and intelligent running between the wickets. A slight collapse ensued from 90/1 to 100/3 but stalwart Lenert van Wyk (67) played his second match winning innings in a row as he accumulated initially and then caught fire at the end of the innings with some massive blows none better than the enormous six he hit off Lizaad Williams that nearly ended up in the river and he combined nicely with Carl Raubenheimer(23) and Dewald Botha (25) to post a challenging 233 for 7.
Vredenburg’s response started poorly with the loss of Newman for a duck as he edged Danny Childs in the first over. The Visitors through Q Kannemeyer and Huishamen ran well between the wickets as they looked to build a partnership again, but it was the introduction of Karl Nieuwoudt (2/16) that created the momentum as he removed Huishamen and the dangerous Shane Summers in 2 deliveries to have Vredenburg stumbling at 50/3. He bowled in tandem with the star performer van Wyk who picked up the crucial wicket of Kannemeyer and the arrival of Raubenheimer’s leggies proved a further obstacle as he removed T Kannemeyer and the downward spiral of wickets had commenced.
Dewald Botha (3/18) was brought into the attack and he really put the boot into Vredenburg’s already fading hopes with his off spinners. The Matie bowlers and fielders had suffocated the Vredenburg challenge from the outset and never allowed them into the game as they collapsed to a 97 run defeat that saw Maties deservedly crowned Boland Premier Champions for 2011/2012.
