The Dolphins defeated the Warriors in the third quarter-final and the North West defeated the Boland in the fourth quarter-final to reach the semi-final of the CSA Provincial T20 cup.
Now, Dolphins will come up against Titans in the first semi-final while North West will challenge the Knights in the second semi-final of the tournament both of which are scheduled for today.
In the third quarter-final of the competition, the Warriors won the toss and elected to bat first. They were not up to the mark with the bat and were rocked early by Daryn Dupavillon, who picked the top three in his first spell. Diego Rosier provided some stability with a 41-ball 51 but he was the lone man standing for Warriors and they could muster only 127 runs in their quota of 20 overs.
In pursuit of a modest total of 128 runs, Dolphins too suffered an early setback in the form of Sarel Erwee, who got back to the pavilion on the very first ball of the innings. However, the Warriors’ dreams were crushed by Keegan Petersen and Dolphins skipper Marques Ackerman, who batted without aggression but made sure they did not suffer a collapse like the Warriors.
Jason Smith unleashed a 41-ball 60 including three sixes on the Warriors and sealed the game and a semi-final birth for the Dolphins.
Meanwhile, in the fourth quarter-final of the tournament, North West won the toss and elected to bat first. Their batsmen did not find it easy to get going but found ample support from the trio of Eben Botha, Lesego Senokwane, Duan Jansen to reach a respectable total beyond the 150-run mark.
From the Boland’s side, the duo of Siyabonga Mahima and Imran Manack was the pick of the bowlers as they never let the North West batsmen get off the hook. The duo of Hardus Viljoen and Ferisco Adams were amongst the wickets but they could not stop the flow of runs and hence North West were able to get over to a defendable total of 156 runs.
Chasing 157 runs, Boland started on a dominating note with the opening pair of Janneman Malan and the skipper Pieter Malan forging a 108-run partnership in 13 overs. Janneman Malan was the more aggressive of the two and he hit three sixes in his 56-ball 74.
However, as soon as Peter fell in the 13th over, there was a flurry of wickets in the middle phase of the game and middle-order squandered the brisk start by the openers. Janneman Malan was left stranded at the crease while North West kept chipping away with the wickets and knocked Boland out of the competition with a narrow win of three runs.