Third straight defeat puts Dragons in tough position

The North West Dragons suffered their third loss in a row in the CSA T20 Challenge when they went down to Western Province by 27 runs at the JB Marks Oval in Potchefstroom on Thursday, 27 October.

The NW Dragons bowled first and struggled to contain the Western Province opening pair of Gavin Kaplan (39 off 26) and Daniel Smith 69 (46) who played a large role in taking their side to a score of 164/5 in 18 overs. Rain reduced the match to 18 overs per side.

Photos: Wouter Pienaar

NW were in trouble early on when captain Heino Kuhn was dismissed for a golden duck LBW to the impressive Nandre Burger (2/30). Wesley Marshall made a quick 30 (19) but his wicket ended Dragons hopes of keeping up with the run-rate.

The middle order struggled to rotate the strike and only Senuran Muthusamy with 39* (25) and Duan Jansen 23 (12) posted any form of resistance.

The Dragons are now bottom of the table after four matches and will need to win their last three matches against the Boland Rocks, Warriors and Knights in convincing fashion to stand any chance of making the semi-finals. They will also hope for other results to go their way.

Today’s (Friday, 29 October’s) fixtures see the Warriors take on the Titans at 14:30 with the Dolphins and Knights featuring in the 18:00 game. 

The Dragons’ next two matches are this weekend against Boland (10:00) on Saturday, 29 October and against the Warriors on Sunday, 30 October at 14:30.