The opening match of the Boland Premier division T20 competition started with a nail biting finish in Vredenburg on Saturday, when Paarl clinched the match with the last ball. It was evident that the winners would be strong contenders for the T20 final on 10 December, with Paarl in the favourable position of home matches against Malmesbury and Wellington over the next two Saturdays.
There was clear tension when captain Darryl Hendricks (24, 2×4, 1×6) and Akeem Minnaar (47, 2×4, 3×6) took the field after winning the toss, but they calmed matters with a workmanlike partnership of 43 runs. For the home team, Tony Kannemeyer (4-0-19-2) and Neil Lochner (4-0-11-1) kept matters under control with the ball, as Paarl laboured for every run. A responsible third wicket partnership of 54 runs between Minnaar and Herschelle Poggenpoel helped take the visitors to 129/5.
Edrique Cook (4-2-12-1) broke through in the first over to keep the home team on the back foot for the first half of their innings. The speedster Grant Chordnum (3-0-33-2) missed his hattrick after two wickets in his first over, while Garth Abrahams (2-0-11-1), in his debut in the Paarl first XI, produced a Man of the Match performance in the last two overs from the south end.
With four runs required for victory off four balls, he shattered Lochner’s (44, 4×6) stumps. Three runs were needed off the last ball when Cullen Heugh’s direct hit from mid off dismissed Alan Petersen, when turning for a second run, to restrict Vredenburg Saldanha CC to 128/6.
Paarl II suffered a six-wicket defeat against Vredenburg-Saldanha II in the early match, after being well placed thanks to a fighting innings from Gideon Fourie (42 off 26 balls, 3×6), after his long lay off through injury. He cleared the boundary at will, but the visitors were limited to 120/5. Jaywin Solomons (33, 2×4) and Leswin du Plessis (30, 1×4) were the other batsman to impress. Although Paarl spinners KD Koopman (2.5-0-19-2) and Nathan Jacobs (2-0-8-1) tried their utmost, ill-disciplined bowling allowed the home team to win in the 15th over, thanks to solid innings from Pluim (29) and Slambert (27).
