IN THE NEWS

'The women's game has gone to another level'

Womens Cricket in the Boland has a busy weekend ahead

On Saturday, the Boland Womens Cricket Team comes up against South Western Districts in the CSA Womens Provincial League.  The match will be played at van der Stel CC with the first ball scheduled to be bowled at 09h30.

Boland won both their season opening double header games away from home earlier this month.  It the first game they came up against Border in East London. Boland was sent in to bat by the hosts and managed 147 in their innings. Alison Hogkinson (34), Sunette Loubser (28) and Simone Marais (25) all made good contributions with the bat.  Kirchoff was the most successful bowler for Border with figures of 4/33 in her 10 overs.

Border’s chase never gained momentum as they lost wickets at regular intervals.  Shafiqa Pillay was the lone contributor with 34 runs.  No other batsmen got into double figures as Border was bundled out for a mere 64 runs.  Merece Mackier picked up the first fiver of the season with figures of 5/17 in 10 overs.  Sunette Loubser (3/11) and Stacey Lackay (2/9) supported Mackier outstandingly. 

Boland won by 83 runs and managed to pick up a vital bonus point in the process.

The next day Boland came up against Eastern Province in Despatch where they decided to send the home team in to bat.  EP was restricted to 138/8 in their 50 overs.  Erné Webber (38) and Jana Nel (38) were EP’s top scorers.  Debutant Stephanie Bester made the most of her opportunity as she took 5/38 in 7 overs destroying any hop of a big total by the hosts.

Boland’s chase got off to a disastrous start when they lost Yolandi van der Westhuizen in the 2^nd over with the score still on 0.  Steady progress was made and an inspiring innings of 61* by Alicia Smith helped to get the visitors past the required target.  Boland achieving 141/7 in 41.1 overs. 

Boland won by 3 wickets and missed the bonus point by 7 balls.

Currently 2^nd on the log, behind Western Province, who won both their games with a bonus point, the Boland team will look to achieve a good result from their upcoming match. 

At club level, the Grand Challenge kicks of this Sunday with Maties hosting van der Stel.  Coronation will be on a bye this week. A great season of club cricket is expected.