da dobrowin： Whether or not they had caught the bug from watching the close of SouthAfrica’s first innings in the second Test in the West Indies on Saturdaynight, Northerns provided one of the most spectacular collapses ever seen atSupersport Park on Sunday to
Grant Shimmin19-Mar-2001Whether or not they had caught the bug from watching the close of SouthAfrica’s first innings in the second Test in the West Indies on Saturdaynight, Northerns provided one of the most spectacular collapses ever seen atSupersport Park on Sunday to hand Western Province a morale-boosting 298-runvictory ahead of this week’s Supersport Series final.Almost unbelievably, after only 21 wickets had fallen on the first threedays of the match, the home side nosedived for 65 in 21.3 overs on Sundaymorning. Incredibly, the innings contained a 52-run partnership betweenFinley Brooker (28) and Dirkie de Vos (17) for the fourth wicket, before thetrapdoor opened and the last seven wickets fell for five runs.Province captain HD Ackerman had sensibly foregone the chance of chasing a25-year-old partnership record on the last day when he declared on theovernight 314 for three, a healthy advantage of 363. He would have reasonedthat his side, on a winning roll, needed every over they could get to winthe match. Little did he know.The record that was within the grasp of Ackerman and Ashwell Prince, on 109and 120 respectively overnight, was the fourth-wicket mark for Province,held, ironically, by Ackerman’s father Hylton and Andre Bruyns. Having added227 by Saturday evening, they were just 21 short of surpassing it.In the end, though, the match ended happily for the entire Ackerman clan -Dad was commentating on television and saw his son make a ton but his recordsurvive – with Province going into Wednesday’s final in prime form and HDsurely having added to the reasons many are advancing for him to captain theSouth Africa A side to India this year.