16|03|04

Mothee Ram Tuskers won their first match of the campaign against World Sport Betting Western Province, leaving the latter rooted at the bottom.

Western Province had first use of the pitch, and they started off well with an 89-run partnership between Jiveshan Pillay and Valentine Kitime (30). Proteas batter David Bedingham came in with aggression, scoring a 26-ball 42 to push Western Province to 166 for 2.

No other batter made a significant contribution except for Mihlali Mpongwana, who scored 22 from 18 balls. Pillay was finally caught by Andile Mokgakane off the bowling of Bamanye Xenke for a well-played 114. The problem for the men from Cape Town was that they kept losing wickets regularly, and they were eventually bowled out for 269 with 17 balls still remaining.

The Tuskers had a good, solid foundation for the first wicket between Jack Lees and Malcom Nofal of 57. Things went bad after that wicket as the middle-order collapsed, and the Tuskers found themselves in a compromising position at 80 for 5.

The Pietermaritzburg side started a rebuild for the sixth wicket between Wayne Parnell and captain Michael Erlank (39) of 76. That partnership was followed by an 86-run stand between Parnell and Andile Mokgakane. Unfortunately, Mokgakane was dismissed via run-out on 51 from 42 balls, but the Tuskers needed just 28 runs to win.

Parnell was able to steer the rest of the tail to a two-wicket win with zero balls remaining. Dane Paterson was a thorn in the Tuskers' chase as he took a 5-wicket haul for 34 runs. Proteas speedster Nandre Burger went wicketless, but he was very economical, going for 32 in his 10 overs.