Cricket
De Swardt and Dragons frustrate Knights on Day 1─── MORGAN PIEK 07:48 Fri, 08 Nov 2024
The North West Dragons will be the happier of the two sides at stumps on Day 1 of the CSA 4-Day Series game against the Knights in Bloemfontein.
The Dragons had a bat first at the Mangaung Oval and declared their first innings on 232/9 with the Proteas allrounder, Ruan de Swardt, scoring 67, while Rubin Hermann scored 56.
The seamer Kerwin Mungroo chipped in with an unbeaten 36. He played his part in a very valuable partnership of 67 runs for the 8th wicket with De Swardt to rescue the Dragons’ first innings.
Kerwin Mungroo. Photo: Morgan Piek
When Mungroo arrived at the crease, the Dragons were in a spot of bother at 159/7.
Matthew Pollard was the pick of the Knights bowlers with 2/36, while Malusi Siboto took 2/47, and Johan van Dyk took 2/58.
The declaration before the close of play did come as a surprise, but this was a tactical decision to pressure the Knights by attempting to take early wickets, and it certainly paid off.
The Knights started pretty well with the bat with Isaac Dikgale scoring freely in the first over and he eventually scored 13 runs off 7 balls before being bowled on two balls into the second over.
Garnett Tarr managed to score five runs before he was bowled out by the former Knights seamer Migael Pretorius.
Pretorius and Mungroo each took a wicket as the Knights battled to 32/2 at the close of play. When stumps were called, the former Dragons player Lesego Senokwane was unbeaten on 6, while the all-rounder Dian Forrester was on 8 not out.
Isaac Dikgale. Photo: Morgan Piek
De Swardt told OFM Sport the plan was to put pressure on the Knights calling for the declaration with less than 250 runs on the board. “That was definitely a plan – if we got closer to 240, we probably would’ve batted those extra two or three overs to get an extra point,” said the Proteas all-rounder.
“But yeah, obviously with the light fading, especially in Bloemfontein, the light fades quite quickly, we knew if we could get one or two wickets early before the end of the day’s play, it would make our work a lot easier going through the upcoming days as well, and put ourselves in a good position.”
Play at the Mangaung Oval resumes at 10:00 with the Knights trailing by 200 runs, however, there is rain about in Bloemfontein and this could be a telling factor for the remainder of the game.
