The Eastern Province Coca-Cola Khaya Majola Week team opened their campaign with a solid draw against Boland in their time (declaration) cricket match at Wynberg Boys’ High School in Cape Town on Sunday.
EP captain Tristan Stubbs starred with the bat, scoring 101 as they managed 233 all out after being sent in to bat, while Boland replied with 118/6 when play was called.
Stubbs’s century was a superb effort as he marshalled the middle and lower order, while only three other batsmen reached double figures.
They were openers Bavu Manyakanyaka (37) and Kamva Dyakala (22), and No 9 Ethan Frosler (20).
Boland’s Kieron Williams was the pick of the bowlers with 3/40.
EP then started with a bang with the ball, reducing Boland to 2/3.
However, they then managed to string a number of partnerships together to save the match, with Samuel Henderson (38), Akeem Minnaar (30no) and Rudolf Claasen (21) the top scorers.
Siphesihle Madlongolwana was the top EP bowler, claiming 2/13 in eight overs, while Siyathemba Mdlankomo, Delron Simmons and Frosler each picked up a scalp.
EP will now look to take that positive momentum into their second time cricket match of the week against KwaZulu-Natal Coastal at Bishops on Monday.
In all, day one was a day dominated largely by batsmen, sprinkled with a few superb bowling performances.
There were three centuries.
Jonothan Bird’s 114 helped set up hosts Western Province for a thumping first-innings win over Border.
Northerns’ Dian Forrester hit an unbeaten 107 and claimed five wickets in a win over KwaZulu-Natal Inland.
And Stubbs made 101 for EP.
In the Western Province v Border match, Bird’s 114, along with an unbeaten 53 from Bonga Makhakha and a few other cameos, saw them score an imposing 260/3 declared in 65 overs.
Border spinners Luke Dallas, 2/62, and Nonelela Yikha, 1/93, claimed the only wickets.
Border’s batsmen then folded in the face of hostile bowling, all out for 114 with Akhanya Rebe's 34 the best effort, while Province’s Siyabulela Plaatjie, 3/20 and Jordan Collier, 3/28, dominated.
The star bowling performance was that of Mpumalanga’s Jacques Vosloo, named CocaCola hero of the day after he claimed 6/20 in 10 overs to post the second-best innings bowling figures yet in a time cricket match at Coke Week, to help bundle Northern Cape all out for 137.
Despite Mpumalanga then being dismantled themselves for 81, Vosloo followed that up in the second innings with 3/11 as Northern Cape crashed to 20/5, setting Mpumalanga 76 to win in their second innings, which they did for the only outright win of the day.
Other wins went to Gauteng on first innings over KZN Coastal, Northerns on first innings over KZN Inland and South Western Districts on first innings over North West, while Free State drew with Easterns and Namibia with Limpopo.