Goldrush Boland crushed a dismal Hollywoodbets Dolphins by nine wickets in their CSA One-Day Cup pool match at a steamy Kingsmead in Durban on Tuesday.
The visitors, who are well invested in the playoffs, will also see it as revenge for defeat in last season’s final in Paarl.
The Dolphins won the toss and batted first on a belter of a pitch, but somehow contrived to collapse to 109 all out in 30.4 overs.
Boland had no difficulty in knocking off the runs for the loss of one wicket in 24.2 overs.
The match was all over at 5.15pm, just after the floodlights were switched on. To lose a 50-over day-night match in such circumstances is a profoundly disappointing effort for last season’s champions.
It was the Dolphins’ second lopsided home defeat in a row after the North West Dragons eased to a bonus-point win on Saturday.
The result means that the Dolphins can no longer qualify for the playoffs. They will, as the cliché has it, simply be playing for pride in Sunday’s home match against WSB Western Province.
There may have been Dolphins’ fans who hoped that Boland would encounter difficulties in their reply, but if so they would quickly have been disabused of this.
Opener Grant Roelofsen (formerly from these parts) and Blayde Capell attacked their task with relish, putting on 113 in 24.2 overs for the first wicket with little or no difficulty.
Roelofsen (33) lost his wicket only because he tried to strike leggie Imran Tahir over the long-off fence, falling fractionally short and offering Eddie Moore a comfortable catch.
There were to be no more mistakes as Capell finished unbeaten on 60 in 86 balls (9x4s, 2x6s) in company with Gavin Kaplan.
Once again Jon-Jon Smuts maintained a quality standard, conceding only 14 runs in his five overs but it was beyond him or his fellow bowlers to defend such a paltry total.
BARON SHINES ON DEBUT
Earlier, right-arm paceman Jevano Baron, making his List A debut for Boland, claimed 4-24 to hurry the Dolphins’ collapse and earn himself the player of the match award.
The 31-year-old right-arm seamer must have thought 50-over cricket was an easy game as he speared through the Dolphins’ middle-order after bowling his full spell of 10 overs in one go.
Romashen Pillay, Hanu Viljoen, Aryan Gopalan and Tristan Luus all fell to him with minimum sweat on his part.
Last week, the Dolphins were dismissed for 138 as they were thrashed by the North West Dragons whose bowlers were blessed by the number of soft wickets that fell to them.
Today was little different, particularly at the top of the order, with Tshepang Dithole, Smuts and Moore all gifting their wickets to the visitors.
Smuts was the first to go after the Dolphins won the toss and chose to bat on a hot day with a north-easter blowing – usually a sign of a good pitch for batting.
Smuts tamely drove his second ball from offspinner Imraan Manack straight to Grant Roelofsen at cover.
Dithole then obligingly smacked a full-toss from the same bowler to Capell at cover who took a sharp catch before loanee Moore, for the second consecutive time, was run-out unnecessarily although it took a fine throw from Nathan Jacobs to achieve it as he hit the stumps from distance.
Skipper Marques Ackerman – the only Dolphins’ batter to play an innings of any authority – then added 23 in the biggest partnership of the innings with Pillay before Pillay got a leading edge to cover to present Baron with his first scalp.
Viljoen was the next on Baron’s menu. He left two deliveries outside his off-stump before nudging the next to the wicketkeeper.
The death knell of the innings was then signalled when Ackerman, after playing some exquisite straight drives in his innings of 40 in 52 balls that included seven fours, tried to guide a delivery from Akhona Mnyaka to third man but only succeeded in edging a catch to wicketkeeper Clyde Reeves-Fortuin.
Gopalan was then bowled after essaying an airy swish at the ball and Baron completed his quartet of wickets when Luus played on off the inside edge.
Tahir had some fun, cover driving a four and clouting an on-drive for six, before he sliced to third man to end the innings.
Baron’s efforts aside, Manack claimed 2-26 in his opening burst while Mnyaka and left-arm spinner Yves Kamanzi each picked up a cheap wicket as the innings came to an end in little more than two hours.
HOLLYWOODBETS DOLPHINS: Tshepang Dithole, Jon-Jon Smuts, Eddie Moore, Marques Ackerman (capt), Romashen Pillay, Hanu Viljoen (wk), Gomolemo Phiri, Aaryan Gopalan, Tristan Luus, Imran Tahir, Bayanda Majola
GOLDRUSH BOLAND: Grant Roelofsen, Blayde Capell, Gavin Kaplan, Jhedli van Briesies, Clyde Reeves-Fortuin (wk), Nathan Jacobs, Jevano Baron, Imraan Manack, Keith Dudgeon, Yves Kamanzi, Akhona Mnyaka