Rhinos fall to Knights at Uplands
After a very positive start to their CSA Provincial T20 Cup campaign, the Mpumalanga Rhinos have hit a rough patch of form with their latest match against the Knights at Uplands College, ending in defeat.
The Mpumalanga Rhinos were no match for the Knights in their latest CSA Provincial T20 Cup fixture, succumbing to a 71-run defeat at Uplands College on Sunday March 24.
It was the visitors who won the toss at the Uplands Oval, opting to bat first and setting their hosts a target to chase down. The Rhinos started off well, restricting the Knights to only 67-3 after 10 overs. However, the Knights bounced back well, and despite losing a further three wickets, they added 49 runs to their total in the next five overs.
Tiaan van Vuuren was in a power-hitting mood for the Knights, though, and dispatched the Rhinos bowlers to all corners of the ground in the next four overs. A brilliant final over from Jon Hinrichsen, in which he only conceded six runs, spared some of the Rhinos’ blushes as the Knights were held to 168-7 in their 20 overs.
While definitely defendable for the Knights, the Rhinos batters would have definitely fancied their chances at chasing down the required 169 runs. However, they got off to a far-from-ideal start, losing two wickets in the first over.
The Rhinos batters struggled to bounce back from there, with only Gareth Dukes scoring any notable runs as he managed to muster 36 off 23 balls. There was little assistance from the other Rhinos batters, though, and they were bowled out for 97, seeing the Knights secure the win by 71 runs.
The defeat at the hands of the table-topping Knights is the Rhinos’ third in a row – a disappointing run of form, given that they had started the T20 competition with a win over Eastern Storm. Their second game, against the second-placed Limpopo Impalas, was rained out and the sides shared the spoils.
Afterwards they travelled to Kimberley where they lost to the Northern Cape Heat by 79 runs. A trip to Oudtshoorn three days later didn’t yield any more success for the Rhinos either, with them losing to the Garden Route Badgers by seven wickets.
With only one match remaining, the Mpumalanga Rhinos are now in sixth place on the log, and face the Eastern Cape Iinyathi in their final round-robin match of the T20 season. Whoever wins the match between the two sides will progress to the semi-final stage, but a draw or a no result will see the Iinyathi progress to the semi-final.
