Ernest Kemm’s Northern Cape Heat find themselves in a tense top of the table battle against the KZN Tuskers in Pietermaritzburg on Sunday. File Picture
The Northern Cape Heat are in trouble on the last day of their CSA 4-Day Division 2 encounter against log leaders the KZN-Inland Tuskers at the Pietermaritzburg Oval.
The visitors won the toss and chose to bat on Thursday, and on Sunday find themselves having to fight tooth and nail to secure a seemingly impossible win, with the hosts firmly in the driver’s seat, chasing a score of 60 just runs in their second innings.
On day one, Heat openers Modiri Litheko and Ernest Kemm put on a decent 52-run opening partnership before Litheko was dismissed for 31 off 45 balls. Skipper Kemm went on to score a steady 40 runs. But it was Ruan Haasbroek’s 101 that helped the visitors to the fairly decent, but sadly inadequate total of 266.
The hosts’ 362 in reply meant that the heat had a massive deficit in the first innings. Tuskers No.1 batsman Kagiso Rapulana was merciless as he scored a belligerent 142. Fellow opener Ben Compton’s patient 85 meant that the KZN team managed a huge 194-run opening partnership. The heat managed to fight back though with Tshepo Ntuli (6/105) the chief destroyer, ably supported by Kem (3/65).
In their second knock, the Heat batsmen got starts but never managed to kick on as only Cole Abrahams (33), Monde Maqunqu (25) and Tian Koekemoer (21) managed to get out of the ‘teens’. Tuskers Sean Gilson’s 4/40 put the brakes on the visitors’ hopes of pulling away and skipper Micahael Erlank chipped in with 2/23.
At the time stumps were called at the end of the day’s play on Saturday, to the Heats credit, the Tuskers were reeling at 25/4 thanks to Ntuli (2/11) and Kemm (3/18) knocking over their top order.
• Meanwhile, at the start of play on Sunday morning, the Tuskers found themselves on 32/6, needing 35 runs to win, and the Heat needing four wickets in what is turning out to be a nailbiter.