The Hollywoodbets Dolphins have recently had a knack of pulling off unlikely victories.
The latest installment came at Kingsmead on Wednesday when the home team successfully defended a seemingly modest 141 as they beat WSB Western Province by 15 runs in their CSA T20 Challenge Eliminator.
The win sends Province home empty-handed and re-directs the Dolphins to Gqeberha on Friday where they meet the Warriors for a place in Sunday’s final against Goldrush Boland in Paarl.
Recent wins over the Titans and the Lions were remarkable, with the Dolphins coming from behind to clinch nailbiting victories.
Many would have wondered at a sunny Kingsmead on Wednesday whether 141 was a big enough total to defend.
A pitch can only be assessed after both sides have batted, and by that measure the Kingsmead track was slow, with the ball sticking in the surface, making it difficult to bat with any fluency.
It didn’t help the Province cause that Eathan Bosch reduced them to 12-3 and 21-4 in the power play, courtesy of a series of brilliant catches in the outfield.
The first was claimed by Andile Simelane, sprinting 30 metres around the deep midwicket boundary to finally dive to his right to somehow hang onto the dropping ball.
Bosch’s second scalp came in his second over when Valentine Kitime edged a cut to third man where Aryan Gopalan ran in and dived forward to catch the ball centimetres from the ground.
His third wicket, with the last ball of the over, was a superb reflex caught and bowled to send back Daniel Smith for a duck.
That gave the rejoicing Dolphins a powerful opening boost that was only underlined when the always-dangerous George Linde pulled Bosch straight to Bryce Parsons on the midwicket boundary.
Bosch eventually finished with 4-21 in his four overs, an outstanding contribution to the eventual victory.
Kyle Simmonds and Joshua van Heerden began a recovery, adding 25 before Simmonds played on to a Tristan Luus slower ball after earlier carting him for 14 in his only over.
That made the Province total a disastrous 46-5 and it became clear that Van Heerden represented the key to Province’s fortunes.
He was joined by Josh Breed and the pair showed clear minds and good shot selection to add 58 for the fifth wicket before Breed (29) ran down the pitch to left-arm spinner Aryan Gopalan and was easily stumped.
That put the Dolphins on top again and the clincher came in the 19th over when Van Heerden, who had tried with commendable calmness to guide his team to victory, holed out to long-on where Anrich Nortje pulled off a superb diving catch – the fourth world-class grab of the innings – to see him depart for 44 in 41 balls.
With 17 needed off the final over, Nortje was given the ball. The Protea was up to the task, claiming two wickets and only conceding one run (for a no-ball) as the Dolphins gained yet another tight win as WP finished on 126 for nine.
DEMOLITION JOB
Earlier, Province won the toss and inserted the Dolphins and it was left-arm spinner Linde – like Bosch later in the day – who gave his team early joy.
Linde began his demolition job immediately, trapping Bryce Parsons leg before with his fourth ball of the opening over.
In his second he bowled a rare maiden to Khaya Zondo who departed in his third over, lobbing to mid-on to give Linde the immaculate figures of 3-1-4-2.
Zondo’s innings of five chewed up 15 deliveries. Then, with only five singles coming off his final over, Linde finished with 2-9 in four overs, narrowly losing out to Yusuf “The Heater” Abdullah (1-8) for the most economical spell in this format at the ground.
Fortunately for the Dolphins, they had Jason Smith to thank for any progress at all in the power-play, taking 15 off Tshepo Moreki to enable the home team to limp to 30-2 in six overs.
Skipper Marques Ackerman helped Smith add 60 for the third wicket before Mbulelo Dube ripped out his middle-stump.
He departed for 17 in 21 balls. Smith struck seven fours and two sixes in a commanding knock before he fell leg before to legspinner Breed for 58 in 41 balls out of a total of 96.
Most of the remaining runs were scored by Tshepang Dithole, who struck five fours in his 27-ball 39.
Nobody else reached double figures as the Dolphins seemed to fall short of a challenging total.
As it turned out, thanks to Bosch’s early burst and some superb catching, it proved to be just enough.
Hollywoodbets Dolphins: Bryce Parsons, Khaya Zondo, Jason Smith, Marques Ackerman (capt), Tshepang Dithole, Gomolelo Phiri (wk), Eathan Bosch, Andile Simelane, Tristan Luus, Aryan Gopalan, Anrich Nortje
WSB Western Province: Valentine Kitime, Jiveshen Pillay, Joshua van Heerden, Daniel Smith (capt, wk), George Linde, Abdallah Bayoumy, Kyle Simmonds, Josh Breed, Raeeq Daniels, Tshepo Moreki, Mbulelo Dube