Boksburg XI pulls one out of the hat
The encounter, which was a top six clash of the 2019/20 Eastern Premier League season, saw the visitors come in as heavy underdogs, following their embarrassing loss to the same opponent early this month – with Northerns winning that one comfortably by 10 wickets.
The Boksburg Cricket Club produced a comeback that would even impress Lazarus as they delivered a four-run smash-and-grab job to defeat title favourites Benoni Northerns in their own back yard on February 16.
Boksburg had their backs against the wall and although a much better performance from them was expected; a win, especially in Benoni, still seemed like a bridge-too-far for the Prince George Park outfit.
But the nature of sport returned to confuse and even shock others, as is always the case.
Hoping that it would not be an omen that would work against them, like the reverse fixture at the same venue, Boksburg were sent to bat first.
They reshuffled their batting order, with one of their standout players on the day Akhter Rasul, opening proceedings with Jayden Snyman instead of captain Adam Forbes, who moved to No. 4.
It was a move that Forbes explained as, ‘To try a more aggressive attack against their opening bowlers’.
It wasn’t a bad strategy from the Boksburg XI brain trust with the opening duo of Rasul and Snyman managing to soak up the early pressure before combining for 109, just 17 runs short of the team’s overall total in the reverse match.
Forbes meanwhile, topped the strikers who added the extras to the foundation put in front by their openers with 15 runs – with the skipper still going through a phase of a dip in form.
However, his teammates managed to hold off the lethal Benoni bowling attack and managed to go deep into their batting innings with their total of 199 being reached after 47.5 overs.
Meanwhile, in a spectacular fashion, the hosts collapsed during their striking innings with as many as four of their batsmen walking back to the stands with duck dismissals – an integral part of their demise. All of opener Musa Twala, Aran Visser, Brat Hall and their captain Kurt Francis were dimissed for nil.
Credit there must be directed to the Boksburg’s bowlers, who came to the party and played like it. Ian Crawshaw finished with 5/18 in his allotted overs of bowling, completing two maidens in the process. The tandem of Adrian de Vries and Matthew Hollard took two wickets each.
Top-shelf bowling was again displayed between these two teams with Benoni’s Mark Robey’s two wickets complemented by Matthew Wittstock’s outstanding 4/22; 1 in his allotted 10 overs of delivering.
Riaan van der Merwe (48 runs), Daniel van der Berg (36), Vaughn (35) and Lance Humphrey (35) were the standout strikers for the hosts but their efforts came up just short as the visitors held on for a famous win.
A chuffed Boksburg captain, Forbes, delighted: “This is definitely our best win of the season, especially after the reverse result. This one meant a lot more to us and our performance as a team, in my opinion, was the best of the season so far.
“Two hundred is always a competitive score so I’m really happy we managed to get a big-ish total. Scoreboard pressure is always a good thing to have, especially going in as underdogs.
“On the day, things went our way and we never gave up, cricket is a funny game, our bowlers stepped up when we needed to and we fed off the pressure.
“One or two of their batters were unlucky, we took a few good catches which could’ve gone either way.”
The hosts ended with 195 runs after 46 overs.
