Warriors waltz to win in the rain

Warriors 251 for 7 (Jacobs 94, Boucher 77 Friend 3-36) beat Western Province Boland 164 for 9 (Gibbs 50, Strydom 4-26) by 75 runs (D/L Method)
Scorecard

At St George's Park in Port Elizabeth, three rain breaks resulted in reduced overs and, ultimately, a fairly easy first win for the Warriors, as Western Province Boland collapsed from 76 for 1 to 120 for 7.

The Warriors batted first under threatening skies, and made a steady start with Mark Bruyns scoring 45, before rain forced the players off for a second time, causing a loss of five overs per team. On the resumption, Mark Boucher and Arno Jacobs took the attack to the WPBOL bowlers, scoring 128 in 89 balls, with Boucher making 77.

Jacobs fell six short of his second consecutive hundred as he was bowled with three balls left in the innings. Two late wickets gave Quentin Friend three for the innings as the Warriors, scoring 126 runs in the final 10 overs, ended on 251 for 7.

WPBOL made a perfect start in their pursuit of a revised target of 257, as Herschelle Gibbs and Andrew Puttick added 76 for the first wicket. Gibbs was the quicker of the two, and went to his 50 in 29 balls, striking six fours and three sixes, before running himself out in the twelfth over.

The wickets of Gibbs and Puttick, stumped for 40, started a collapse that left WPBOL on 120 for 7, with the spin of Pieter Strydom and Bruyns doing all the damage. One more run was added when, once again, the rain came down with WPBOL well behind the asking rate. On resumption, Con de Lange and Friend had a bit of a flurry, but when the rain returned at 164 for 9, the umpires called it a day.