Tail wags for Southern KZN as Mansur cuts loose
The team got themselves out of a sticky situation and will need to up their game this coming Sunday.
It’s not often the number 11 batsman in a team makes the top score, even when it’s a case of a top order player who’s injured coming in last.
Sahal Mansur is better known for his fast bowling abilities, but with his side Southern KwaZulu-Natal in deep mire against Lindelani at Newlands Oval last Sunday, he came to the rescue.
From a precarious situation, he got his team into a position of relative health, which was enough to see them eventually win by 40 runs.
Mansur is not really the type to prod and poke at the ball, so he let loose with his heavy willow and sent the ball screaming to the boundary to bring cheer to his teammates.
When he went in, the score was 81 for nine. When he was dismissed LBW (the fifth such dismissal, some of them questionable, in the innings) he had made 25 and the team total was a ‘maybe defendable’ 121.
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To be fair to Mansur, he is actually a proper batsman but due to Southern’s long batting lineup doesn’t get to bat much.
He’s definitely not in the category of say, Morné Morkel of Proteas fame, who rates himself with the willow and calls himself ‘Haydos’ after Australian legend Matthew Hayden.
Prantosh Kalkapersad lent some useful support, batting at number nine, making 12 not out.
Ironically perhaps, Southern KZN won the toss and chose to bat on what turned out to be a very tricky wicket.
They were soon in trouble with Ali Iftikhar out for four runs, followed soon after by Sachin Kalkapersad, who made a rare duck.
Uzair Desai and Gareth Bishop steadied things for a while, making 19 and 24 respectively.
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But then there was a collapse of note. From 48 for two, the team was floundering at 81 for nine before the unlikely hero Mansur strode to the crease.
In that collapse, Ashley Lombard was out for one, Raja Kazi for a blob, so too Gershion Lawrence.
Yusuf Moosa made just six runs as did Junaid Mansoor.
Then, in a manner reminiscent of Ian Botham or Imran Khan in their heydey, Mansur grabbed the ball and rattled Lindelani’s batsmen.
He scythed through the top order with three for 13 in five overs, opening the way for Southerns’s three spinners to do the rest.
Gareth Bishop picked up three for 25, Lawrence two for 15 and Raja Kazi two for an unusually expensive (by his standards) 24 runs.
Southern KZN now tops the log in the Level Two Challenge.
* In the game between Port Shepstone CC and Gamalakhe CC, played at Port Shepstone CC, the hosts won by 114 runs.
Sheppie batted first and made 206 all out, with top scorers being Danie Kleynhans (54) and Niko Potgieter (37).
In reply, Gamalakhe were all out for 92, with Malusi Lubanyana carrying his bat for 45 not out.
Pick of the bowlers was Saeed Patel with for for 21.
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