Day 1: Northerns bonus points bonanza

CENTURION - Northerns batsmen need to put together a class batting act today if they aim to collect four bonus points out of this A Section match against Natal and keep alive their hopes of qualifying for the SuperSport final.

Which means the way is open for Martin van Jaarsveld and Mike Rindel to nudge the national selectors conscience as possible World Cup candidates when the game resumes today with Northerns struggling at 51 for three in reply to KwaZulu/Natal's 155.

While Mark Davis would be more than happy to collect four bowling points they way it was done was as impressive as Natal's bowling late the day.

Greg Smith's left-arm pace earned him a season's beat four for 42 and Davis put together the soft of off-spin performance which he last achieved five seasons ago. His return of three for 25 off 21.5 overs was as remarkable for its control and discipline as it was for the way he tied up the Dolphin batsmen.

Although the pitch rewarded those bowlers who were prepared to work, the batsmen generally fell victim of their own indecision.

Northerns, so in touch with their game plan before lunch, seemed to find the second session of the day a lot more problematical. The ball had gone a little soft and the pitch had lost some of its sting. Yet Smith bowled as well as he has done at A Section level season and certainly better than his figures suggest on a pitch where bounce was variable throughout the day.

The big left-arm quick should have had his first five-wicket haul of season, Grant Morgan, however, spilled the chance which would have earned him that accolade. Keith Storey, who later put in a solid bowling performance when Northerns batted late in the day, was 14 at the time and the Dolphins, in danger of failing to make a noticeable splash at this venue, three short of the batting point.

Not that the let off was a major catastrophe. He fell almost three overs later, failing to add to his total and the Natal score at 147 still three shy of that first batting bonus point. When it did come up it was through a flowing cover drive by Gary Gilder and as good as any stroke he managed when in Sri Lanka during the South African A team tour last year.

It is debatable whether the Natal captain, Errol Stewart, having won the toss misread the pitch or the visitors batsmen discovered that the Northerns bowling attack had more venom than they thought possible. From the time Mark Bruyns gave away his wicket in the first over of the day the Dolphin floundered around without too much purpose.

Apart from Doug Watson's lbw, the rest seemed to dig themselves into a hole and at lunch they were a sorry at 60 for five. Stewart had a top score of 21 but the rest were no where. There was some crisp strokes early on by Stewart who made a meal of anything David Townsend bowled in his wayward first over.

When he departed, well picked up by Dros at first slip off Smith's bowling not many would have given odds on a single batting point.

There was some quality bowling from Quentin Ferreira whose opening spell of seven overs was as good as anything bowled yesterday and Davis mixed up the spinners quite tidily on a muggy day.

Had it not been for Mehood Badat, Natal would have unlikely reached 155. From the time he dropped anchor and applied the Geoff Boycott school of batting technique, he did what he could to staple the lower-order together.

It wasn't a classic innings: application of such defensive tactics rarely is. But coach Ian Tayfield and the skipper, Stewart, no doubt felt his 207 minutes of dogged persistence would earn extra recognition for effort from the Natal selectors.

Day 2: Natal batting technique on the blink

CENTURION - Natal's batting technique was as shaky as the scoreboard at Centurion Park as the visiting dolphins were caught floundering on the same surface which sunk the West Indies five weeks ago.

Barely 200 m from the gently flowing Hennops River, the visitors were all but beached by a batting display which was as abysmal as any the Caribbean tourists put together in the Test series this season.

Trailing on the first innings by 76 runs Natal, when the scoreboard managed to function with accurate information had nudged their way to 124 for eight, a lead of 48, in this SuperSport Series match which could keep Northerns in with a glimmer of a chance of finishing among the top three.

Northerns had managed to squeeze out two batting points and Natal four bowling as the Titans scored 231, falling short in their quest for four batting points.

Yet had it not been for a disciplined batting rearguard from Grant Rowley and Robbie Macqueen, Natal would have gone down inside two days and possibly with an innings defeat. But the seventh-wicket pairing rescued the Dolphins from drowning in a pool of their own bating misdemeanors.

This was coupled to a superb spell of swing bowling from the 21 -year-old David Townsend who at one stage destroyed the middle-order through a mixture of deceptive pace and use of the off-cutter in the Fanie de Villiers mould .

Rowley and Macqueen took the innings by the scruff of the neck and added 67 through the sort of defiance missing from the bigger-named batsmen. They grafted, scraped and occasionally bludgeoned the total past the dreaded 76 mark. Earlier there had been much indifferent to poor batting which made the visitors appear second rate. In the end they pulled together a partnership of 67 in only 110 minutes.

The Dolphins had slipped to an embarrassing 45 for six when Rowley was joined by Macqueen although Rowley can count himself fortunate. He was dropped when 16 with the score at 73 for seven. Deon Jordaan put down an easy catch at square leg off Quentin Ferreira to halt what had been a miserable day for the visitors. There was another escape when he was on 31 when Gerald Dros put him down in the slips as Northerns struggled to break the tenacious partnership.

When he finally fell to a bat-pad catch for 35, with Jordaan scooping up the ball from a Mark Davis delivery, the batsman was reluctant to depart. So was Keith Storey, dismissed in similar fashion by the Jordaan/Davis combination two runs later at 114 for eight. Barry Lambson gave both decisions with Storey most unhappy.

Northerns owe their score of 231 to an A Section best of 85 by Quentin Still, reaching his 50 with a square cut of Keith Storey toward the end of a lengthy bowling spell.

Mike Rindel also smashed the ball around with all the timing in the world,

Taking four for 16 in nine overs with tea as a sandwiched to help him in his prolonged spell, the young man now has picked up 24 wickets in his first A Section season. He got rid of Mark Bruyns, John Kent, Wade Wingfield and Mahood Badat. He would have had a five wicket haul but for Rowley being missed twice in his innings.

Not that Northerns covered themselves with too much glory either as they squeezed out two batting points and a first innings total of 231 after dismissing Natal for a paltry 155 on Friday.

Generally the batting has been as bad as you are going to see. With Quentin Still the only batsman in either side who has managed to put together an innings of any substance with a score of 85 the standard of some A Section sides makes you wonder how serious are some of the players about learning a better technique to improve their game.

Don't take anything away from the bowlers, Keith Storey used the overcast conditions before lunch to test the skill of the Northerns batsmen: he bowled without luck, forcing Still and Martin van Jaarsveld to battle for their runs.

Still, who heads for the national academy later this year, was disciplined in his stroke selection and did what he could to hold the Northerns innings together during a tough morning session. Undefeated on 20 overnight he went to his half century with as fine a cut as you are going to see. It was his sixth boundary in a stay which at that stage had lasted 165 minutes. Just the sort of occupation of the crease others generally lacked.

Now he is to miss the rest of the season after damaging the index finger of his right hand through a fielding mishap in the slips. The finger was dislocated and a later medical examination confirmed that he had torn ligaments.

Van Jaarsveld, who had batted more than an hour and seemed to have overcome the early morning problems, then played the sort of stroke he would rather forget, giving Grant Rowley an easy catch in the gully. The ball did not come through

With Errol Stewart deciding that attack was the better option to him in restricting Northerns' first innings lead, he operated with an slips cordon and used Jannie Dreyer and Gary Gilder in extensive spells from the Hennops end while Storey operated from the West Lane end.

Mike Rindel came and went - 38 off 19 balls with some powerfully placed strokeplay - as Northerns went in search of runs and batting points. But after lunch the batting jitters replaced the calm as first Still fell and a run out as bizarre as any you will see involving the skipper Davis and all-rounder Quentin Ferreira, restricted Northerns to two batting points - two short of the four they wanted.

Day 3: Northerns wrap up fourth win

Quentin Still put on a brave face when awarded man of the match yesterday, but no one can help feeling sorry for one of the architect's of Northerns comprehensive nine wicket victory over Natal with more than a day to spare. There is little doubt, that despite David Townsend's career best haul of six wickets in the Natal Dolphins second innings, it was Still's innings of 85 on Saturday which provided the batting spadework needed for Northerns to win the fourth SuperSport Series game in a row.

Whether the 16 points from the game is going to be enough depends largely on the result of the Western Province game against Griqualand West in Kimberley. A Province victory, Northerns coach Peter Kirsten admitted, would end what slim hopes the Titans had of featuring in the A Section final in two weeks time.

For Still, however, the season is over. A fielding accident saw him dislocate the small finger of his right hand. Later x-rays showed the top the finger had also been displaced and the combination means that the 24-year-old all-rounder will miss the game against Free State starting at Centurion on Thursday.

Northerns had been hoping for four batting points but managed only two. A bizarre run out involving the skipper Mark Davis and all-rounder Quentin Ferreira, who has been a revelation this season, cost Northerns at least a third point.

Whether the fourth was on is another matter. From the moment Mike Rindel arrived the run rate rocketed. The left-hander played the sort of aggressive role he has been known to play. It was the ease with which he played his strokes, however, which was a revelation for those who had battled to score runs.

It was a cameo performance cut down by an lbw decision which might have had some bat involved, then again it might not have hit the pad first.

He smashed the ball through the covers and found the gaps others had struggled to find and raced to 38 off 19 balls when he fell to Robbie Macqueen. The runs came from a man who was as fluent in his strokeplay as he was attacking. Some shots rocketed off the bat, and a couple were flat-batted with all the grace and charm of someone out to do serious mischief with the bowlers handsome figures.

Still's accomplished innings, which had kept Northerns afloat for much of the time it took to score their first batting point, was sedate, cautious yet technically perhaps the best of the game and did much to nurse Northerns through to a first innings score of 231 and a lead of 76 runs.

Then we were again confronted by Natal's lack of depth, which has been finally exposed when they were bowled out for a second innings score of 133. With players such as Neil Johnson defecting to Zimbabwe, for whom he has already scored a test century, and the South African selectors opting for Jonty Rhodes, Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusener and Dale Benkenstein, to tour New Zealand it goes without saying that Natal's batting and bowling deficiencies have been allowed them to become the lame ducks of South Africa first-class scene.

Which is quite interesting for those in the Natal boardroom who wanted to get rid of Johnson and replace him with players of inferior skill. This much was obvious at Centurion Park over the seven sessions this allegedly four-day game lasted.

It was David Townsend, who earned the ``junior star (cavalier)'' award yesterday for his career best six for 36 in 16.3 overs which did much to destroy the Natal second innings. It took Northerns only 29 balls yesterday to wrap up the Natal second innings with Townsend advancing his tally from four to six wickets in 17 deliveries. It also takes his A Section haul to 26. He bowled Gary Gilder for 15 with the first ball of his 17th over and then Jannie Dreyer two balls later.

Then Gilder suffered when delivering three short balls to Deon Jordaan in the first over of the Northerns innings. They were hooked and pulled with classical ease and the 61 Northerns needed for victory seemed to be there for the taking.

In the end Grant Morgan managed to score 19 and Gerald Dros 16, both not out, and the 16 points Northerns collected might not be enough to see them through the mine field to reach the final early next month.