The Eastern Cape Iinyathi are delighted to be crowned co-champions of the CSA Division 2 One Day Cup, though it was not ideal to share the spoils with the Tuskers.
The match at the Pietermaritzburg Oval on Saturday afternoon was called off due to a wet outfield on the reserve day, meaning the two teams’ names were both engraved on the trophy as the competition winners for the 2024/2025 season.
The final had to be forced into Saturday’s reserve day after persistent rain on Friday led to the match being suspended following numerous inspections.
On Friday, Iinyathi had reached 82/0 after 15 over after the Tuskers won the toss and elected to field first.
Jerome Bossr was on 44 off 46 balls and Nathan Roux with his 30 runs, but the rain gods would not allow proceedings to go further.
Despite those disappointments, Iinyathi clinched their first-ever trophy under the new domestic structure — and their first under head coach Tumelo Bodibe.
The Iinyathi brand was founded about half a decade ago by Border Cricket.
“We would’ve loved to be the sole winners of the competition, but we were hard done by the rain,” Iinyathi captain Jerome Bossr said.
“That was the third game of ours that was rained out in the competition, which is not nice, but nonetheless the team are happy.
“We had a good campaign overall.”
Bossr finished as the competition’s leading run scorer, with 359 runs, while his colleague Aphiwe Mnyanda took 11 wickets during the whole campaign and was among the most impressive bowlers.
“Yes, we are happy with the individual accolades, but it was a team effort. Without the team we wouldn’t have been able to get them,” Bossr said.
Having landed in East London from KwaZulu-Natal on Sunday morning, the Iinyathi entourage will have to prepare for another trip back to Pietermaritzburg on Thursday to face the Tuskers, this time in the four-day competition.
This will be the Buffaloes’ last game of the season, and in the longer format which sees them third on the log with 73.16 behind the second-placed Tuskers, who have 82.8, and leading Northern Cape Heat on 103.24.
“It is a very short turnaround,” Bossr conceded.
“We return to training on Monday.
“We will have to quickly switch up mentally, put the final behind us and focus on finishing our red ball game on a high,” he said.
Daily Dispatch
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