In one of the closest games played at the Gaborone Oval this year, Central South District (CSD) edged out South Gaborone (SG) Tau in Round 5 of the Botswana Premier League U17s.
CSD Kwena were looking to get their game back on track against SG Tau.
Tau skipper Thuso Motlogelwa won the toss and elected to field. This proved to be a good decision as Thatayaone Tshose and the skipper bowled tightly and the CSD Kwena openers found runs hard to come by.
At 36 for 3 off 9 overs, things did not look good for the CSD Kwena team but their talisman opening batsman, Inziman Master, soon settled down and batted with nonchalant poise to keep the runs ticking on the board.
At 78 for 4 off 15 overs, things looked to be under control for CSD Kwena’s innings and with Master into his sixties. In came Mmoloki Mooketsi and he struck in his first over, removing the dangerman Master, bowled for 68 of 77 balls. Mooketsi then helped mop up the Kwena innings, claiming three more wickets and Kwena were soon all out for 133 in 29.4 overs.
The Kwena batting once again proved to be its weakness and, taking into account Master’s 68 and a total of 27 wide deliveries, the next highest scoring batsman for Kwena made only made 7 runs.
Having done the job of restricting Kwena to 133, SG Tau must have felt confident that they could pick up their second win of the campaign. Things started brightly enough in the chase with Tau’s score being 18 off the first 2 overs.
Openers Tharan Panchalingam and Obakeng Eyman battering Kwena opening bowlers Hafesji and Pathan around the park. Things, however, took a turn for the worse as change bowlers Dumo Siwela and Huzefah Malik came in to bowl their overs and after the breakthrough wicket of Obakeng off Siwela’s bowling. The Tau innings slowly began to show signs of panic and after the levelheaded Motlegelwa was dismissed in the 13th over their innings looked shaky.
At 62 for 5 the game had definitely swung in favour of Kwena, unfortunately, inconsistency in the bowling attack led to the scoreboard ticking over. With wickets fully here and there, the Tshose found himself with tail ender and the Koloboi and the two were the last batsmen left. Whist it was Tshose’s job to rack up the runs he hoped that Koloboi could maintain his wicket down the other end. Just as things seemed to be going perfectly with runs to win Koloboi decide to play across the line with a big hot and was clean bowled.
Kwena won the game by 3 runs.
The other fixture in Round 5 between Central Gaborone
Tshukudu and league leaders CND Mokwepa was postponed and that match will be played on the 12th of November.
