da poker： POOR batting and useful bowling by two potent attacks on a pitch of variablebounce saw 15 wickets fall on the first day
Telford Vice – MWP01-Feb-2001POOR batting and useful bowling by two potent attacks on a pitch of variablebounce saw 15 wickets fall on the first day.By the close, Border were 76 runs behind on 114 for five in reply toNortherns’ first innings of 190.Not that the pitch was a major factor in all that timber tumbling, evenallowing for the odd bout of variable bounce. After all, Northerns captainGerald Dros won the toss and batted.Alas, the batting fairly reeked of ill discipline, while the bowling on bothsides was out of the top drawer, helped not a little by the significantswing on offer.Border took wickets with pure pace, in the form of Makhaya Ntini’s three for32, medium pace, with Piet Botha picking up three for 16, and spin,off-spinner Geoff Love taking three for 58.David Townsend bowled aggressively to do the damage for Northerns withfigures of three for 25, while Steve Elworthy was his steady self in takingtwo for 33.Bowling honours on the day probably belonged to veteran all-rounder Botha,who went for nine runs in his first over and then bowled immaculately toconcede just seven runs in his remaining eight overs.Border also held some good catches, epitomised by Laden Gamiet’s divingeffort at backward point to remove Jacques Rudolph.Northerns were 71 for three at lunch and were dismissed with what became thelast ball before tea. Their scorecard would have made even more mournfulreading were it not for a sixth-wicket stand of 57 between Dros and thenuggety Kruger van Wyk.Fittingly Dros and Van Wyk made the two highest scores of the innings, 35and 30 respectively, before being dismissed an over apart.The continuation of the unfinished partnership of 42 between captain PieterStrydom, who was 33 not out, and Gamiet, on 18, would seem to be Border’smost viable option for taking a substantial first innings lead.