Border made short work of their task, scoring 98 runs in just less than two hours to wrap up a seven-wicket victory over Northerns shortly before lunch on the third day. The result earns Border a share of second place with Boland, temporarily at least.

A pitch which harboured variable bounce from the first morning ended up yielding 33 wickets in less than seven sessions, but there were no complaints from either side.

"Good bowling, bad batting," was Northerns coach Dave Nosworthy's succinct assessment of what went wrong for his team. Chasing a minimal 105 for victory, Border scored 108 for three. The pattern for the match was set in Northerns first innings, in which they totalled 190. Border replied with 236 and then dismissed the visitors for 150 in their second innings.

The home side resumed on 10 for one with Northerns still in the game by virtue of their useful attack and, of course, the pitch. And when Craig Sugden was caught behind for five off Steve Elworthy half-an-hour into the day's play to make it 22 for two, hope must have flickered ever so slightly among the men from Centurion.

However, Steven Pope and Wayne Wiblin snuffed it out in their solid partnership of 51, which ended abruptly when Wiblin pushed a delivery into the covers and set off on an ill-judged single. Pope was flying for the crease, but Allahudien Paleker's throw hit the stumps and the batsman was run out for 33.

Mark Boucher was not about to suffer a similar indignity and smashed six fours in his unbeaten 27 in an emphatic effort to hasten the end of the match. Wiblin helped him finish the job with a more sedate 23 not out. Border captain Pieter Strydom was named man-of-the-match for his 86 in the first innings which had much to do with his team gaining a lead.

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