The men in maroon beat UJ by 67 runs at Senwes Park in Potchefstroom on Wednesday afternoon, to remain undefeated in 2017.
Maties won the toss and and elected to bat first. Tyler Smith and Fritz de Beer getting off to a slow start thanks to the bowling of Justin Watson and Dean Horn.
In the third over Justin Watson bowled an absolute peach, as the ball swung back in and removed De Beer’s stumps. A vital wicket, considering De Beer’s form. Maties were 7/1.
Tyler Smith and Jean Bredenkamp were living dangerously, top-edging and a narrow runout miss. Smith turned on the gas in the fifth over, hitting a couple boundaries in succession, and narrowly missed being runout in the next over, taking a risky run. The TV umpire deciding he was home safe, by a matter of inches.
Maties were trudging along at 34/1 after six overs. As he has done so often, Klopper got the breakthrough when he found Smith driving straight, comfortably into the hands of Watson.
Poor fielding let UJ down, leaking fours and dropping catches. But luckily Juan Landsberg broke the 54-run partnership, getting Bredenkamp to attack a wide ball, which was caught by Dean Horn in the covers. Maties were now 89/3. Erasmus came in and took it upon himself to anchor the innings, helping Maties to 113/3 with five overs to play.
He reached his 50 off just 30 balls in the 17th over. Hitting four boundaries in succession, he punished Broodryk, until the bowler clean-bowled him off his final delivery. It was 139/4 with three overs remaining. Maties took their Powerplay Plus over in the final over, but Klopper capitalised, nabbing the wicket of Isma-eel Galfieldien and Maties ended on 172/5.
Maties had the first wicket, Klopper stumped off Botha in the third over as UJ began on 10/1. Stevens got the second breakthrough, trapping the captain Neels Bergh LBW just as UJ started scoring freely. They moved to 36/2 off 6.2.
The Maties bowling attack were brilliant with their line and length, restricting the usually free-scoring Grant Roelofsen and Ryan Rickleton. In contrast to UJ, the Maties fielding effort was superb.
Roelofsen was caught brilliantly by Gafieldien coming in from the long off boundary. There was another stumping as UJ fell to 46/4. A carbon copy of Botha’s first wicket.
Shortly after that there was a complete mix-up and UJ’s Whitelaw was runout, UJ now 47/5. Botha was destructive, knocking over Broodryk’s stumps and nabbing his third and everything crumbled from there. UJ lost their final four wickets for just 19 runs and ended on 105, 67 runs short.
FNB Best Bowler: Niel Botha (Maties)
Steers Best Batsman: Gerhard Erasmus (Maties)
Samsung Man of the Match: Niel Botha (Maties)
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