THE North West Dragons dominated their way to their first win of the 2024 Cricket South Africa T20 Challenge with a 126-run win over the KZN AET Tuskers at the JB Marks oval in Potchefstroom yesterday.
Opener Rubin Hermann followed up his excellent knock of 90 off 54 balls against Western Province on Wednesday night with a destructive 102 off 54 balls. Herman was dropped on 81 runs but middled every ball thereafter on his way to an imposing first Twenty20 century of his career.
The Dragons had a match winning opening partnership between Herman and Meeka-eel Prince who was dismissed for 58 off 34 balls after a brilliant catch in the boundary by Ruben Trumpelmann ending a superb partnership of 141 off 77 balls. Herman soon followed for 102 off 54 balls wehn he was caught by Ntando Zuma off the bowling of Keith Dudgeon.
Both sides knew weather permitting, one of them had to get the win under their belt as they found themselves at the wrong end of the table. The Dragons would have counted themselves unlucky not to have won at this stage of the tournament with some close contests but if there was a lesson to be taken going into this fixture, they needed to be clinical.
Yesterday’s win shows how they have worked on their shortfalls and showed intent as they cashed in on a seemingly good wicket and the less confident Tuskers side and posted 207-4 after 20 overs. They would have felt they were about 20 to 30 runs short after the opening stand between Prince and Herman.
The Tuskers failed to use the little confidence gained in the back end of their bowling innings that saw them restrict the Dragons to a lesser total than they would have liked.
Kerwin Mungroo didn’t need much warming up as he hit the ground running and got the wickets of Kagiso Rapulana 0(1) and Cameron Delport 4(3) helping himself to two wickets in his first over Tuskers (5 for 2) in early trouble chasing a big total.
The Dragons scored 19 fours and 12 sixes but in between rotated strike well for ones and twos. The Tuskers had to follow the same game plan if they had any chance of chasing down this total, but they had other plans and were already four wickets down inside the first powerplay.
Top scorer Cameron Shekleton had the best seat in the house as wickets kept tumbling at the other end and the Tuskers living up to their reputation of losing wickets in clusters since the beginning of the tournament. Shekleton was soon sent packing bowled by Caleb Seleka for 28 off 26 balls, ending his team’s chances of getting anything off the match.
Caleb Seleka (4-0-16-2) and Senuran Muthusamy (4-0-16-3) picked up five wickets between themselves and halted any momentum the Tuskers tried to build up and rounding-up a close to fantastic day for the Dragons.