Andrea Agathagelou continued his prolific runs scoring form in the Sunfoil Cup Provincial Three-Day Competition when he recorded his fourth century in five innings for South Western Districts to secure the home team’s their first outright win of the season.
They defeated KwaZulu Natal by 6 wickets at the Recreation Ground in Oudtshoorn over the weekend.
Three of those innings have been undefeated with the result that he has the mammoth average of 275 from the 550 runs he has made.
The other star for SWD was seamer Ottniel Baartman who took a career best 7/27 in the first innings and 7/78 for a match return of 14/95. With this outstanding performance he overtakes the SWD first class record of the most wickets in a match that was previously held by Gurshwin Rabie (12/76; SWD vs KwaZulu Natal Inland – 2013/14) and William Hantam (12/103; SWD vs Namibia – 2010/11)
After being 11/3 Agathagelou (125*; 205 balls; 2×6, 17×4) and Brendon Louw (89; 216 balls, 11×4) put on 194 runs for the fourth wicket in the second innings as SWD comfortably chased down the victory target of 248 with 6 wickets to spare. This was a remarkable match in which both sides were nearly bowled out on the first day following a delayed start caused by overnight rain. In their first innings SWD managed to aggregate only 74 with Mthobeli Bandingawo (2/17) who added valuable support to Baartman. SWD replied with 107 all out with the highest score from Brendon Louw (24).
SWD led by 33 on the first innings but Jason Oakes (108), who made a maiden first-class century, and Senuran Muthusamy (142), who got his second century of the season, shared a partnership of 228 for the third wicket to put their side back in the match with a second innings total of 281. The rest of the KZN batsmen did not fare as well as they contributed a combined total of 28 runs (one man absent injured) to leave SWD with a very achievable target.
The successful chase of 249 in the fourth innings of the match is also a new SWD first class record. The previous highest fourth innings total – 196 – to win was achieved in the 2007/08 season at Kingsmead in Durban – also against KwaZulu Natal.
The SWD batting unit led them down in the Cricket South Africa Provincial One Day competition on Sunday when the home team went down with 64 runs against KwaZulu Natal at the REC Ground in Oudtshoorn.
KZN, who won the toss and elected to bat, were restricted to 201/8 in their allotted 50 overs thanks to fine contributions by Johnny Riekert (55) and Sibonelo Makhanya (62). Siyabonga Booi (3/19 in 9 overs) was outstanding with the ball for SWD and he received good support from Otneill Baartman (2/48 in 10 overs) and Glenton Stuurman (2/44 in 10 overs).
In SWD’s innings only Neil Hornbuckle (40; 61 balls, 5×4) and Brendon Louw (33; 69 balls; 1×4) made significant contributions with the bat as SWD only managed to record a modest total of 137. The SWD batsmen struggled in particular against Tyron Koen (3/9 in 7 overs) and Senuran Muthsamy (3/20 in 9.1 overs)
