WHEELS COME OFF SPECTACULARLY
Border fail to come to the party when it was much expected
THE Border semi-professional cricket team will need to have a solid couple of weeks of training if they are to redeem themselves and finish their 2017-18 cricket season on a positive note.
After a fantastic first half of the season that saw them well in with a chance of making both the Sunfoil 3-Day Challenge and CSA Provincial One-Day Challenge finals, they have spectacularly fallen away in the second half so far.
They began with a win in the three-day competition over Namibia in January, picking up where they had left off before the break in December, but followed that up by losing the one-day.
They then travelled up to Pietermaritzburg to play KwaZuluNatal Inland and lost both games, followed by a three-day draw and one-day loss against South Western Districts this past weekend.
This has left Border third and fifth in pool A on the three-day and one-day logs respectively, too far off the tabletoppers with just two games in each competition.
“We had a long chat after this weekend and we said that we have let ourselves down, we were in the running in both competitions and now we are out,” admitted Border coach Frank Plaatjes.
“We had put in all the hard work in the first half of the season and then messed it up in the last two games, so we have to finish the season well to make up for that.”
Part of Border’s struggles has been their poor batting form over the last few games.
Since batting well enough in the three- and one-day matches against Namibia, they have followed that up with five out of six innings below 200 runs in both formats of the competition.
Against Inland, in three-dayers Border managed totals of 128 and 144 in an innings and 77-run loss, while in the one-day they managed 172 runs, in a 77-run loss.
This past week against SWD, chasing the hosts first innings score of 370/4 declared, Border were dismantled for just 158 and heading towards another loss, before some middle-order put a good fight to take them to 300/7 in the second innings to save a draw.
Any hopes that the batsmen had turned a corner were then extinguished in the following oneday as Border were skittled for just 148, in a seven-wicket loss.
“In terms of our batting it has been very poor recently and it has played a big role in our struggles,” explained Plaatjes.
“Our top order has not taken responsibility and that is something we really have to work on in the coming weeks.
“It is just about applying yourself and occupying the crease, our bowlers are doing really well, they are hitting their marks and bowling the right lengths, it is just our batting that has to improve.”
Next up for Border will be North West in Potchefstroom in just under two weeks time, before they finish the season at home against KZN towards the end of March.
North West currently sit fourth on pool A's three-day log, a position below Border, but are on top of the one-day log and all but sealed a final berth already.
KZN have enjoyed a superb season so far and sit comfortably top of pool A on the three-day front, while they are second on the log in the one-days.
“We really want to end the season off on a positive,” said Plaatjes. “It is not going to be easy because North West and KZN are playing very good cricket and they both have chances to make finals, so if we can get one over them it will be a massive positive for us.” Border’s final fixtures: v North West from March 8-10 in the Sunfoil 3-Day Cup
v North West on March 11 in the CSA Provincial One-Day Challenge.
v KwaZulu-Natal from March 22-24 in the Sunfoil 3-Day Cup.
v KwaZulu-Natal on March 25 in the CSA Provincial One-Day Challenge.