Border, with two games left to play, have made a bold bid for a Standard BankCup semi-final place with a win over Griqualand West in Kimberley
Wisden Cricinfo staff12-Feb-2004 Border 239 for 3 (Henderson 126*, Pope 50) beat GriqualandWest 236 (Koortzen 64, Gidley 52, Bosman 42, Henderson 3-45) by 7 wickets
ScorecardPointsTableBorder, with two games left to play, have made a bold bid for a Standard BankCup semi-final place with a win over Griqualand West in Kimberley. Griqualand West, losing, see their hopes of a place in the final four fall by the wayside.During the evening supper break some disgruntled members of the GriqualandWest community held an on-field peaceful protest against the recentannouncement that neighbours Free State had won the cricket franchise forthe area. A memorandum was handed over to the CEO of Griqualand West CricketBoard for forwarding to the United Cricket Board of South Africa.Winning the toss and batting first Griquas made the perfect start withPieter Koortzen and Martin Gidley putting on 89 for the first wicket. Gidley (52) was first to lose his wicket and was replaced by Benjamin Hector who added a patient 27. With the loss of Koortzen (64), on 148, Loots Bosman was allowedto score freely, and hit three sixes and two fours in his innings of 42from 22 balls.Losing five wickets for 32 runs in the final six overs did not do anyjustice to the Griqualand innings as they were bowled out for 236. Tyron Henderson the pick of the Border bowlers taking 3 for 45.Border starting slowly and lost two early wickets. They quickly fell behindthe required run rate. Henderson, sent in up the order, got the runs flowingwith his flurry bringing up his 50 in 47 balls and his first 100 in 85. StevenPope, a very willing partner and content to rotate the strike, lost hiswicket after reaching his 50 in 65 balls. The partnership was worth 138 runsand set Border up for the win.Craig Sugden, scoring a quick 28 off 17 balls helped Henderson, finishing ona career best 126, to reach the target in the 44th over.