• Northern Cape progress to semis

    Kagiso Mohale took 5-19 as Northern Cape sealed the third spot in the Africa T20 Cup semi-finals.

    The 97-run victory for Northern Cape spells the end of Northerns’ title defence, who will now play for pride against South Western Districts in Sunday’s later game in Oudtshoorn.

    Northern Cape surprised the champions with an eight-wicket victory on Saturday, and Aubrey Swanepoel, who hit 49 not out in that game, inspired his side to another comprehensive win on Sunday to go through to the final four unbeaten.

    Kenya gave themselves an outside chance of progression with a one-wicket victory against SWD, but they were blown away by their opponents, largely thanks to Swanepoel’s 64 off 29 balls. The foundations were set by Patrick Kruger (41) and Gerhardt Abrahams (35) who put on a 68-run opening stand.

    Kenyan captain Rakep Patel prevented Northern Cape from getting close to 200, picking up figures of 2-15 from his four overs without conceding a boundary, as their opponents settled for 166-4.

    A 27-run stand in 3.3 overs gave Kenya some hope, but Mbulelo Budaza and Kagiso Mohale combined to devastating effect to see all ten wickets fall for 42 more runs.

    Irfan Karim (14) and Alex Obando (12) were the only batsmen to reach double figures with seven the next highest score. Budaza’s first two overs went for just two runs, which included a wicket maiden. Mohale then tore through the middle order with career-best figures of 5-19, to see Kenya all out for 69.

    Scorecard

    Photo: Samuel Shivambu/Backpage Pix

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    SA CRICKET