South Africa 'A' v Cricket Web XI
at Paarl
Scorecard
Commentary
The few people who had turned up to see Cricket Web XI's series opener were treated to a rather low-key affair, where CW XI eventually prevailed by 11 runs thanks to good death bowling. Without their two leading ODI bowlers in the past couple of seasons, CW XI failed to find threat, but disciplined fielding nevertheless ensured that the hosts kept on the winning run.
Cricket Web XI batted first, but immediately suffered disappointment, as an inswinger from Morne Morkel trapped Andrew Cloete lbw. Replays revealed that Morkel overstepped in the delivery, but the wicket stood and Cloete's return to the grey and gold was less than impressive.
Then followed two grinding partnerships, as Ian Markus chose a cautious way to play himself into form, and Dinu de Silva poked around for 95, ably supported by Daniel Towns. Rob Dauth got a chance to stake his claim in the late overs, and hoiked 19 quick runs before getting bowled by Hayward, which helped the total up to 237 for four.
For much of the hosts' innings, it didn't look enough. After Marc Robbins had provided two breakthroughs in his first two overs, South Africa A fought back through Rudolph and van Jaarsveld, but neither were able to up the run rate at the death, and despite Morne van Wyk running himself to exhaustion during his 30, they fell 11 runs short.
How out:
Cricket Web XI
I Markus: padded up to Tshabalala's stock off break, given lbw
AP Cloete: full ball smashed into ankle in front of leg stump
MW DeSilva: hooked to Petersen at square leg
DP Towns: not out
RJ Dauth: bowled through the gap attempting a huge off drive
A Crampton: not out
South Africa 'A'
AN Petersen: smashed to cover
JA Rudolph: not out
JP Duminy: padded up to a Robbins slower ball
VB van Jaarsveld: clean bowled by a yorker
MN van Wyk: not out
Cricket Web XI 237-4 (50 overs)
de Silva 95, Towns 59*; Tshabalala 2-39
South Africa A 226-3 (50 overs)
Rudolph 94*, van Jaarsveld 52; Robbins 2-42
Cricket Web XI won by 11 runs
Man of the Match: MW de Silva
Good luck boys especially Dauth, reckon hes about to explode into top notch form in these ODers. Also good luck to Andy on his return to ODI's.
