Gauteng scramble their way to safety against Griquas

Griqualand West were denied a rare Supersport Series win on Sunday by a courageous sixth wicket partnership between Andrew Hall (92) and Marthinus Otto (88) as The Highveld Strikers scrambled their way to safety on Sunday.

The Supersport Shield is perhaps not the most obvious place for heroics, but 160 runs shared by the two batsmen rescued the Strikers from what would have been an ignominious defeat indeed.

At the time the pair come together, Strikers had crumbled to 59-5, a lead of just three runs - as Griquas came out fighting on the final morning. Sven Koenig, Adam Bacher and Zander de Bruyn could manage just 15 runs between them - in the Strikers first innings they had teamed up for a combined total of 304.

But Hall and Otto were unbowed in their resistance and by the time the partnership was broken the match was more or less safe. Not long afterwards the captains shook hands on a draw, Griquas not even given the opportunity to bat again.

It all amounted to a missed opportunity for Griquas, and another poor performance from a Strikers team who have the talent to do so much better. It has largely been a season to forget for the Johannesburg side.