Date-stamped : 10 Nov93 - 20:56
BENSON & HEDGES Night Series
Transvaal vs Western Province, 6 Nov 93
at the Wanderers, Johannesburg, Match Report

It was a  pity  the  rain  came,  because  it  was  looking  like
developing  into  an  interesting  game, with Laing in full fury.
Rushmere had looked totally out  of  touch,  and  was  thankfully
bowled   by  Pringle  after  facing  about  15 balls.  Yachad had
looked comfortable from the start,  but  Cook  scratched   around
a  bit before  getting  into  his  stride.  He  was about 20 runs
behind Yachad until Rundle came on, and he decided  to  try   and
hit   him  out   of   the  attack  (my  guess is it was personal,
with Eksteen being Cook's favourite  spin  bowler,   and   Rundle
having   taken Eksteen's place in the national side). So Cook and
Yachad entered the 40's at about the same time, and got to  their
50's  within  a ball  or so of each other. They then proceeded to
go  out  within  2  balls  of  each  other,   both   to   Rundle!
Cullinan   was  lbw  to McMillan  in the next over, and Snell lbw
to Rundle in the next.  Tvl  had  slumped  from  117/1  to  122/5
within  15 balls.  But  Pothas joined  Laing  to steady the ship,
and Laing continued where Cook had  left  off,  being  even  more
severe  on Rundle, smacking him  for 18 off his eighth and 12 off
his ninth. But then the rain came to  put  an  end  to  a  highly
entertaining game. There was  an  incident on  the  field between
McMillan and Cook; The Star interpreted it  as  such:  "Cook  and
McMillan  had  their contretemps  in  the  30th over  after  Cook
had miscued a drive off  McMillan  over  cover.  As  the  batsman
turned for a second run, he appeared to collide  with the  bowler
and  the  two exchanged words  with  each  other.   With  neither
content to let the matter drop, they began to wag fingers at  one
another, much in the manner of two drunks  bickering  in  a  bar.
Cook  appeared  to  come  to  his  senses  first  and  seemed  to
offer an  apology  which  was  bad-temperedly  shrugged  off   by
McMillan  as  umpire  Sarel  Marais  and  Province  captain Craig
Matthews  scurried  anxiously  between  the  two."  In the Sunday
paper, it was reported that the fight wasn't as bad as it looked.
Someone  "close  to the action" said, "The fight lasted 5 seconds
at  the most. Thereafter, it might have looked  as  if they  were
carrying  on the argument, but they were actually sorting it out.
Jimmy told Brian that, as senior players, they should be  setting
a  better  example.  Jimmy  said  he apologised if he was in  the
wrong. Brian accepted this and a ball later they were joking with
each  other.  Spectators might have got the wrong impression when
umpire  Cyril Mitchley  later approached  Cook.  Cyril  was  just
asking  if things had been sorted out, and Jimmy confirmed this."
The  players  appeared before  a   hastily-convened  disciplinary
committee  meeting after the match, where they received a warning
but escaped any further penalty.

Thanks to Mark Alan Brodie on r.s.c.
<END> Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)