Western Province duly completed a comfortable victory over the Northerns Titans to win the UCB Bowl 3-Day competition for the third season in succession.

Predictably, left arm spinner Paul Harris was the man of the day, claiming 8 for 53 in 24.3 overs. A tribute to his control was that he conceded just 4 boundary hits in his lengthy spell, two of them when Christo Karemaker hit out with the number 11 batsman for a partner.

Northerns made a good start to the day. Allahudien Paleker and nightwatchman Gary Hampson were circumspect at first, but Paleker gaimed in confidence, at one stage hitting Ryan ten Doeschate over mid-wicket for six.

Strangely, home captain Jonno McLean used his seamers for the first hour of play. When Paul Harris was eventually re-introduced to the attack, he broke through in his second over, taking a good low catch to dismiss Hampson, who had been dropped playing a similar shot off the previous ball. This ended a 47 run partnership, which was to prove to be the best of the innings, holding up the home attack for over an hour. Johan Myburgh looked good value, and Quinton Still batted aggressively while Paleker went on to complete his half century in just over two hours off 112 balls.

At 126 for 4 the visitors must still have been confident of scoring the additional 117 for victory, but they then crumbled to 150 for 9. Harris was instrumental in this slump and was aided by good catching. A particularly memorable effort was made by JP Duminy, back-pedalling some 15 metres to take a spectacular catch on the mid wicket boundary to dismiss a subdued Friedel de Wet. Eventually, Karemaker struck out in desperation, hitting all of the last 24 runs in a do-or-die blaze of glory. His farming of the strike was so effective that last man Ethy Mbhalati did not face a single ball during his 15 minute innings.

Appropriately, Harris claimed the final wicket with 46 overs still remaining when Karemaker mistimed an on drive, Duminy effecting his third successive dismissal of the innings.

The last indignity for the Northerns batsmen, who had done well enough to gain a 109-run lead on the first innings, came when the sprinkler system was inadvertantly activated while the presentation ceremony was still in progress, sending them scurrying to prevent their equipment from being drenched. Thus Western Province maintained their dominance of this competition, and will go confidently into the one-day final on Wednesday, this time facing Border.

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