IN CENTURION

It may have rained on Northerns parade yesterday but it did not prevent the light blues from dusting out their trophy cabinet as they lifted the Standard Bank League Trophy for the second time in three seasons.

And the team was as professional as you are likely to see as they added Griqualand West to their list of victims this season, mauling the visitors by a margin of 10 wickets as they reached 91 without loss at SuperSport Centurion

While there was joy in the dressing room for the skipper Mark Davis and coach Peter Kirsten an enthusiastic, if pathetic in terms of size, crowd greeted Northerns winning their first national trophy at home as Pienaar reached 51 with a straight drive off Martin Gidley to clinch an overwhelming success.

It came after the innings, twice reduced by rain, saw the Titans chase a target of 89 off 28 overs having restricted Griquas to 127 for eight with Pienaar and Deon Jordaan taking their side to their second impressive success of the weekend. Initially the rain loss during the extended lunch break meant Northerns had, under the Duckworth/Lewis system, to score 118 off 38 overs.

When rain halted play a second time Northerns had scored 39 off 12 overs, which meant they needed a further 50 runs off 16 overs which was a bit of a cruise for the experienced Northerns opening pair. No fuss no bother: just clever rotation of the strike with the odd boundary.The victory, which was watched by former coach Keith Medlycott, out from England on holiday, has entrenched Northerns at the top of the log out of reach of Border, who loomed as their main rivals after the five-wicket victory over Gauteng on Friday.

As Kirsten and Davis admitted, the motivation factor after the ``tremendous effort at the Wanderers'' was always going to a tough one.

But if there had been any doubts of the team's commitment it was soon forgotten after Davis, winning the toss, opted to put Griquas into bat first, an unusual decision but based on weather factors.

As it was Greg Smith, with support from Rudi Bryson and Quentin Ferreira, knocked over the top Griquas four batsmen, including Kepler Wessels, with only 26 runs on the board. And when Pierre Joubert, fresh from his brilliant man of the match efforts of Friday, got rid of Ottis Gibson for a duck, Griquas had no where to go at 30 for five.

As Wessels agreed, it was going to need a special performance and Griquas don't have that sort of depth. It was Greg Smith's big left-arm aggressiveness in his first over which was as dramatic for Northerns as it was traumatic for the visitors. The first ball, called no ball by umpire Robbie Brookes, uprooted Martin Gidley's leg-stump. Two balls later a hesitant prod by the same batsman saw Van Jaarsveld picking up a catch at third slip to give the big left-hander the first of his two wickets.

In walked Kepler Wessels who chipped the first ball to the covers for a single. A nice bit of work off his pads and just to show that he was not going to be dominated. The next ball saw Pieter Barnard pushed forward to one which nipped back. Then Smith trapped Barnard lbw, also for eight as Griquas became a sorry 24 for three.

Not at all the sort of position Wessels would have liked. But he has dug other sides out of deeper holes.

But three overs later Northerns took control of the game when Wessels edged Quentin Ferreira to Dennis Smith and 26 for four Griquas were in more trouble than they could handle.

When the fifth wicket fell, Ottis Gibson lbw to Pierre Joubert for a duck and only 30 runs on the big board, the sparkle had vanished from the Griquas diamond and their hopes of a quarter-final place was in the balance. Only lower-order tenacity held the innings together as Northerns fielded and bowled with the sort of professional control.

Dirkie de Vos, one of the heroes from Friday's victory over Gauteng at the Wanderers, chipped in with two run outs which has made him one of the class fielding acts in the Northerns side.