Duminy takes Western Province to the top

Western Province has made sure of finishing at the top of the Standard Bank Cup table with a close win against Easterns at Newlands while Northerns, winning against Gauteng, can still finish on the same points but would have won fewer matches.

The pace for the remaining two semi-finals hots up. Western Province (47 points) has finished its matches while Northerns (41) still has to face Free State at Centurion. Easterns (34) has a tough match against Border in Benoni while Gauteng (33) are at home to Border and away to KwaZulu-Natal.

Western Province 244 for 6 (Ferreira 56, Duminy 88, Flusk 3-54) beat Easterns 235 for 5 (Z de Bruyn 68, Koenig 49, Seymore 41) by 9 runs
Scorecard

Western Province, batting first, came up against a determined Gareth Flusk who took the first three wickets of the innings leaving Province at 72 for 3 in the 17th over. At the end of the 35th over Lloyd Ferreira, scoring 56, and Jean-Paul Duminy, scoring 88, had taken the score to 169. The last ten overs added a further 75 to the total, setting Easterns 245 to win.

A solid, but slow, opening partnership of 73 from Sven Koenig and Andre Seymore put Easterns under some pressure. Zander de Bruyn, Pierre de Bruyn and Darryll Cullinan took up the challenge and scoring at close to a run a ball brought Easterns to the brink of victory. Losing three wickets to run outs and needing 62 in the last five overs proved to be just too much.

Northerns 206 for 3 (Petersen 50, de Villiers 59, van Jaarsveld 52*) beat Gauteng 205 (Harris 50, Thomas 4-31) by 7 wickets
Scorecard

A collapse in the final ten overs saw Gauteng squander all the hard work done up front to be bowled out for 205 inside 45 overs. Having started off at a good pace they had laid a solid foundation of 180 for four when the final ten overs started. Losing six wickets for 25 runs virtually handed the game to Northerns. Alfonso Thomas, who had taken two early wickets, finished with four as he cleaned up the tail.

Looking for a bonus point Alviro Petersen (50) and Abraham de Villiers (59) put on 85 for the first wicket and then de Villiers and Martin van Jaarsveld (52) put on 58 for the second wicket. Neil McKenzie and van Jaarsveld added a further 49 for Northerns to win in the 39th over.

North West 248 for 6 (de Vos 65*, Rowley 62) beat Free State 247 for 4 (van Wyk 107) by 4 wickets
Scorecard

A magnificent 107 not out from Morne van Wyk boosted Free State hopes of a home win against North West in Bloemfontein. Scoring 247, with small contributions from the rest of the order and taking two early North West wickets, Free State seemed well on its way to a win.

Then the tide turned. First there was a 73-run partnership between Ryan Bailey (41) and Davey Jacobs (41) that helped consolidate and then there was the match winning 102-run partnership between Dirkie de Vos (65) and Grant Rowley (62). Not having won a game since December 2002 North West had won twice in a weekend.