The Dafabet Warriors produced arguably their most complete performance of the season as they hammered the North West Dragons by an innings and 142 runs in their Cricket SA 4-Day series match in Potchefstroom on Thursday.
Matthew de Villiers’ visitors controlled the proceedings from the start and registered their third victory of the season in the competition as they routed the Dragons for 85 in 37 overs, winning with almost a session and a day to spare.
After tumbling the home side for 160 in their first innings, the Warriors built a commanding lead of 227, thanks to a brilliant 134 from Jordan Hermann and knocks of 76 by Patrick Kruger and 45 from Thomas Kaber.
Kruger, who had added 100 for the sixth wicket with Hermann on Wednesday, and Kaber hammered the nails in the Dragons’ coffin tighter on Thursday morning with a seventh-wicket stand of 83 before Kruger was dismissed with the score on 335.
The Warriors tailenders then helped Kaber to advance the total by just more than 50 runs to leave the Dragons under extreme pressure as they faced the prospect of batting out more than four sessions to save the game.
But any sign that a fightback by the log-leaders was imminent, was swiftly extinguished as the top five wickets tumbled for 51.
That left the Dragons with their backs firmly against the wall and the Warriors were in no mood to let their opponents off the hook.
They continued to dominate proceedings and the next five wickets could add only 34 more runs as the Warriors swept to an overwhelming victory.
Not one Dragons batter was able to pass the 20-mark, with openers Lesiba Ngoepe and Onke Nyaku making the top scores of 17.
For the Warriors, it will make their Christmas pudding taste all that much sweeter.
On numerous occasions this season, they have found people to do the job when needed, a trend that continued in this match, with Matthew Boast’s five-wicket haul in the first innings setting up the chance of a big lead, followed by the batting of Hermann, Kruger and Kaber.
In the Dragons’ second innings, it was simply an all-round effort as their attack suffocated the batting and reaped the benefits of that.
The fast men — Boast, Duanne Olivier and Aphiwe Mnyanda — took two wickets each, and Senuran Muthusamy, Kruger and Kaber joined the feast to secure one of their most memorable victories of recent times.
The Herald
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