WP Blitz and Paarl Rocks issue serious statement of intent in CSA T20 Challenge

Cape Town - The two Western Cape teams enjoyed a hugely profitable day at St George’s Park yesterday, with both the Paarl Rocks and Western Province Blitz earning bonus-point victories in the Cricket South Africa T20 Challenge.

This had a massive impact on the standings, with the unbeaten Province securing their place in the semi-finals by virtue of their 84-run victory over the North West Dragons.

The Rocks, meanwhile, polevaulted up the log from sixth position into semi-final contention in third place with their 44-run despatching of the Lions.

WP Blitz certainly issued a serious statement of intent in the afternoon game.

Although the WP batters managed to post a competitive total of 164/8 – courtesy of a half-century from Jonathan Bird (53 off 44 balls) and some lower-order hitting by captain Wayne Parnell (33 not out off 17 balls) – it was the bowling unit that simply blew away the Dragons.

Proteas left-arm seamer Beuran Hendricks set the tone with an inspired new-ball spell of 3-0-13-4. It tore the heart out of the Dragons’ run-chase, and they were simply never able to recover from 17/4 after just 3.1 overs.

Hendricks was certainly helped with some brilliant catching, in particular by Parnell, who threw himself acrobatically to his right to claim a two-handed catch goalkeeper style at mid-off.

And in true fashion of a team growing into a confident unit, WP never took their foot off the gas, with leg-spinner Junaid Dawood maintaining the pressure with an equally brilliant spell of 4-0-22-3 to control the middle overs.

Dawood claimed the important wicket of Proteas all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius, before bagging Lesego Senokwane and Nono Pongolo in successive deliveries to reduce the Dragons to 41/8.

The Potchefstroom