Western Province ended a 10-year drought in Cricket South Africa’s 1Day Cup at Newlands on Saturday, klapping the North West Dragons by a helse 107 runs in a one-sided final at Newlands on Saturday.
Captain Kyle Verreynne and his teammates set out to keep the trophy in the Mother City for the first time since 2013 and they did so with aplomb, going through the tournament unbeaten.
Coached by Salieg Nackerdien, Province lost the toss and nothing else on the day.
#1DayCup Champions!!!🔥![CDATA[]]>🎉![CDATA[]]>🏏#WPcricket #westernprovince #BoyInBlue💙 #WozaNawe pic.twitter.com/0hT5rXJY1l
— Western Province Men (@WP_Blitz) October 28, 2023
Dragons captain Wihan Libbe sent Province in to bat first.
And when they got openers Jonathan Bird (3) and Tony de Zorzi (11) out cheaply, they would have thought they’d made the right decision.
When Duan Jansen (1/51) then also claimed the scalp of the dangerous David Bedingham for 16, Province were in all sorts of trouble at 39/3.
They needed a hero and after Valentine Kitime departed for 16, their heroes emerged in the form of captain Kyle Verreynne and Mihlali Mpongwana.
Together they took WP’s score from 81/4 to 280/5 - sharing a 199-run fifth wicket partnership.
Their partnership was eventually broken with a superb direct hit from Raynard van Tonder to run out the skipper for 111 off 103 balls.
Mpongwana (105 off 109) stuck around until the final over when he was clean bowled by Kerwin Mungroo (3/66) after looking to go for a big one.
But they had done enough to help Province to 307/8 in their 50 overs.
Still, there was a job to do with ball in hand and here too Mpongwana (3/32) put up his name to deliver the perfect allrounder performance n the big stage.
After new-ball partners Nandre Burger (1/29) and Beauran Hendricks (1/20) did the initial damage to have the Dragons reeling at 42/3, visiting captain Wihan Lubbe fought bravely for his team with his 70 off 79 balls, but Mpongwana and Verreynne again combined to take three middle-order wickets which was all caught behind by the latter.
With Abdullah Bayoumy (3/24) also chipping in, Province bowled out the Dragons for just 200 runs to claim the 1Day Cup title.
dudley.carstens@inl.co.za