The Standard Bank Cup round robin stage came to a dramatic end last night with the final semi-final spot only being decided on the last ball bowled after midnight in Benoni. Easterns needing four off the last ball to qualify for the second round lost by one run allowing Eastern Province to slip in the back door.

KwaZulu-Natal with a convincing home win against bottom of the table North West captured the top semi-final spot, with Border jumping into second place after beating Boland in Paarl. Northerns, who had qualified for the semi-final stage in the previous round, filled the third position after going down to Griqualand West in Kimberley. Natal and Border will have the choice of venues in the best of three semi-finals.

The first of the semi-finals, Northerns vs Border is scheduled for Wednesday 7 th at Centurion. The second leg takes place on Friday 9 at East London and if required Sunday 11 at East London. The second semi-final is a week later starting in Port Elizabeth before moving to Durban for the final two legs.

The Standard Bank Cup final is to be played on Friday 23 at a venue still to be decided with a trip for the winners to travel to Perth in Australia to take on the winners of the equivalent competitions from India, New Zealand and Australia.

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