Boland secure victory over sorry Easterns

It wasn't so much a case of Easterns having their unbeaten record at Willowmoore Park this season wrestled from their grasp as of handing it over on a platter as they succumbed to Boland by seven wickets.

The visitors reached a moderate target of 184 in 43.1 overs, 11 balls short of their quota, with skipper Louis Koen (68) and left-hander Gerhard Strydom (43), playing only his fourth Standard Bank Cup match, combining for an unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 82 to see Boland home comfortably.

But Easterns gave them all the help they could, with all their bowlers bar captain Deon Jordaan, who sent down just one ball when the scores were tied, contributing to an astonishing tally of 24 wides. Chief culprit was burly paceman Andre Nel, who contributed eight, including seven in a five-over first spell which only cost 13 runs in total. From the other end, Kenny Benjamin sent down five, along with two no-balls, and there were also five from Pierre de Bruyn, one for a "beamer", three from Gareth Flusk, two from Derek Crookes and one from Mike Rindel.

A sorry tale for Easterns was compounded by a high number of full tosses and some woeful fielding, which not surprisingly led Jordaan to label the match his team's "worst performance of the season" afterwards.

Boland recovered from six for two after Nel and Benjamin had removed Henry Davids and Jonathan Trott respectively early on, Koen and Justin Ontong, with a classy 41, taking the tally to 102 before Strydom joined the skipper for the cruise home. With his own score on 22, Koen twisted an ankle turning for a second run off a shot from Ontong that went for four and had Trott as a runner for the remainder of a 117-ball innings that earned him the man of the match award.

After Jordaan won the toss and chose to bat, it was De Bruyn and wicketkeeper Dylan Jennings who rescued Easterns from a disastrous 70 for six in the 20th over with a partnership of 69 off 106 balls. Jennings more than doubled his career runs (22 before the match) with 27 and De Bruyn went on to 53 off 76 balls.

Henry Williams, who is again eligible for national duty this month, produced a superb first spell of two for eight in seven overs and returned to remove De Bruyn in the penultimate over for a match analysis of three for 21 off nine overs.

However, De Bruyn and Jennings' stand at least saw the home side come within two balls of batting through the 45 overs after their early disasters.