The North West Dragons Women secured both the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Women’s Provincial One-Day Cup and Provincial T20 Cup in dominating fashion.

There is no doubt that the heart and fire of South African provincial women’s cricket lie at Senwes Park in Potchefstroom. The North West women completely blew the Boland ladies away in both their One Day and T20 matches at Senwes Park this weekend (2–3 February) to fittingly secure championship glory on home ground.

In the one-day match, it was the opener, Tanja Cronjé (118) and Anneke Bosch (107*) who built a solid foundation with some tantalising stroke play to set up a humungous 331-run win.
The Dragons made 420/6 from their allotted overs and then bowled out Boland for 89 in a breeze with Alyssa Erxleben taking 4/17 and Evodia Yekile bagging 3/17 in their 10-over spells.

It was the same routine in the T20 match as Boland were skittled out for 66. This time, the Dragons bowlers each bagged a couple of wickets, with Esmaralda Olivier (2/13) and Yekile (2/6) being the pick of the bunch.
Cronjé (31) and Bosch (29*) then stroked their way to a fifty opening partnership before Sinalo Jafta and the latter finished the game off for a comfortable 9-wicket win.

Photos: Barco Greeff

Such has been their dominance that the North West women have shown, that they were crowned champions with one match still to play against Northerns.

According to the NW Dragons Women’s coach, Francois van der Merwe, his team has had another excellent season, mainly due to the competitive level of cricket and the amount of work the women put into their game in North West. ‘We are almost operating at a semi-professional level here at the Dragons, in the sense that we practise twice a day and put a lot of effort into building the team. Other provinces practise once a week, just to put the difference into perspective.

‘The popularity of Women’s cricket has gone through the roof and we, at NW Cricket, are the leaders. Our success and the continued exposure has led to these women getting the opportunity to make a living out of cricket as it gives them an opportunity to get SA Women’s Proteas selection,’ explained Van der Merwe.

He has held the job of head coach for the past eight years and has done a tremendous job each year to enhance the competitive level of the women. Some of his players, like Lizelle Lee, Masabatha Klaas and Sinalo Jafta, have also worn SA Proteas colours.

‘Anneke Bosch and Tanja (Cronjé) have been our most consistent performers this year, while Evodia Yekile has been a tremendous asset with her bowling,’ he enthused.