A big unbeaten half-century from Dafabet Warriors captain Matthew de Villiers wasn’t enough to get his team over the line, as Goldrush Boland held on for a nailbiting five-run win in the first CSA T20 Challenge qualifier at Boland Park in Paarl on Tuesday night.
De Villiers was brilliant, striking three sixes and eight fours in his 96-run 63-ball innings, but he was in the end unable to earn his team the win as they finished on 171-6 in response to the hosts' 176-3 batting first.
It means that Boland move straight into Sunday’s final, which they will host at the same ground, while the Warriors will host the winner of Wednesday’s eliminator between the Dolphins and Western Province at St George’s Park in Gqeberha on Friday.
It was a perplexing final two overs that cost the Warriors as De Villiers seemed to lose his nerve after playing an amazing knock.
With 27 needed off the last 12 balls, De Villiers hit back-to-back fours off Glenton Stuurman in the 19th.
That brought the equation to 18 runs needed off nine balls, but he missed all of the last three balls of the penultimate over, each of them down the leg side, leaving 18 needed off the last and De Villiers off strike.
CJ King (10), hit the first ball of Ferisco Adam’s last over for a four, but then faced a dot, before the batters strangely ran two doubles, instead of a single to let De Villiers take the strike, which in the end saw the captain not face a single ball in the final over as the Warriors just fell short.
Earlier at the start of the chase, the Warriors got off to a disastrous start as they crashed to 13-3 in just the second over.
Stuurman struck in the first over, having a furious looking Jordan Hermann out LBW for a first-ball duck, with the batter indicating he hit it as he walked off and replays seeming to indicate he was correct.
Imran Manack, who was the pick of the bowlers with top figures of 3-26 in four overs, produced a brilliant second over, as he bowled his cousin Muhammad Manack (1), and then trapped big hitter JP King LBW for a first-ball duck in a much more straightforward decision, leaving the visitors in deep early trouble.
That brought Sinethemba Qeshile (30) in to join De Villiers and they set about a recovery job with a 75-run fourth-wicket partnership off 64 balls to get them back into the game.
But in the third over Boland suffered a blow, as strike bowler Keith Dudgeon pulled up when chasing a ball that went to the boundary. He limped off holding his quad and was unable to return to action.
The rest of the first half of the innings saw pretty tight bowling from Boland, with only Siyabonga Mahima’s fourth over going for 14, after De Villiers hit him for a four and a six, while a six from Qeshile off Aya Gqamane in the ninth saw 11 come off it as they reached the halfway stage on 75-3.
A busy 13th over from Gqamane saw De Villiers bring up his fifty off 41 balls with a single, before Qeshile was caught at long on by Jhedli van Briesies with the score 88-4.
De Villiers was then dropped on 54 by Stuurman at cover at the end of the over, which luckily didn’t prove costly in the end.
Unable to call on Dudgeon, Boland had to turn to Gqamane to bowl three overs and Lehan Botha one.
De Villiers targeted two of those four, as he flicked a four and pulled a six over deep midwicket off Botha in the 14th over with 15 off it as the 100 came up, and cracked a six over deep backward square leg off Gqamane in the 15th as 12 came off it.
Patrick Kruger, 23 off 14 (2x6), then came to the party as he blasted Ferisco Adams for two sixes in the 17th over (one off the first ball and one off the last) as 16 came off the over, with the chase firmly back on.
But Adams accounted for King, leading to the thrilling finale.
KAPLAN AND VAN BRIESIES STAR WITH THE BAT
At the start of play Boland won the toss and chose to bat and were led by a solid half century from Gavin Kaplan and an unbeaten 75-run partnership with Van Briesies, as they set the Warriors difficult chase on a tricky pitch.
Kaplan ended unbeaten on 53 off 46 balls (2x4; 1x6), but it was Van Briesies who provided the impetus cracking four fours and a six in his unbeaten 44 off 26.
The Warriors' bowlers found the going tough, with Aphiwe Mnyanda (1-25) and Thomas Kaber (1-28) the only ones to pick up a wicket.
The Boland innings got off to a great start thanks to captain Clyde Reeves-Fortuin, who pushed himself up the order to open the batting and smashed five boundaries in a quickfire 21 off nine balls.
He cracked two boundaries off CJ King’s second over, that went for 16 runs, and three consecutive boundaries in the third bowled by Kerwin Mungroo, but then inexplicably ran himself out after trying to knock the ball past the bowler and setting off, only for Mungroo to field with his foot and throw down the stumps (36-1).
New man Kaplan cracked a four and Grant Roelofsen (28) hit a six off the next over from Wesley Bedja, as 13 came off it and took the hosts to 50-1 after just four overs.
The Warriors then fought back as they made scoring tough for the next six overs, with Boland reaching the end of the powerplay on 58-1.
In the eighth over the pressure finally told, as Roelofsen came down the wicket to Kaber and tried to dump him inside out over the offside, only to miss the ball and be bowled, leaving them on 68-2.
That brought Botha (18) in and along with Kaplan they took their side to the halfway mark on 80-2, before they started to open up as 20 came off the next two to get them to the 100-run mark.
Mnyanda struck in the 13th, as Botha late cut him to a diving CJ King at short third man with the score 101-3, but that proved to be the final bit of success for the visitors.
Van Briesies and Kaplan took a moment to get going, before unleashing in the final five overs of the innings as the Warriors gave up 56 runs.
GOLDRUSH BOLAND: Grant Roelofsen, Clyde Reeves-Fortuin (capt, wk), Gavin Kaplan, Jhedli van Briesies, Lehan Botha, Ferisco Adams, Keith Dudgeon, Aya Gqamane, Imran Manack, Glenton Stuurman, Siya Mahima
DAFABET WARRIORS: Muhammed Manack, Jordan Hermann, Matthew de Villiers (capt), Sinethemba Qeshile (wk) JP King, Patrick Kruger, Thomas Kaber, CJ King, Aphiwe Mnyanda, Wesley Bedja, Kerwin Mungroo