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77 from Gareth Dukes frustrated Free State as KwaZulu-Natal Inland got to a decent total desire regular fall of wickets.

KZNIN's first innings total of 286 was pretty good despite the fact they were, at varying points, 46-2, 140-6 and 264-9.

Free State were 31-1 at stumps.

A massive first innings display has turned this three day game into a one man sideshow.

With a day left to play, Andries Gous is on 216* with his team on 442-6 - a lead of 156 for Free State.

The draw is now inevitable.

Gous' previous First Class high score was 137.

Unless KZNI collapsed on Day Three this was always going to be a draw; they didn't and it was.

Free State declared on 529-6 with nor further losses to their wickets, a lead of 243. KZNI Then used the 64 overs to overturn that before hands were shook. KZNI captain Luke Schlemmer was the star of the day with the score of 82.

Free State are second in the table behind Eastern Province whilst KZNI are second bottom.

A big scoring game at the Diamond Oval saw only two completed innings between Western Province and Northern Cape - but three centurions as the game ended in an inevitable draw.

The most impressive batsman was Zubayr Hamza - who contributed 183 runs in WP's 457/6d and then followed that up with a 9* by the time hands were shaken this afternoon.

In this form WP's 5th place berth on the table is likely to improve - especially if Hamza continues this rich vein of form. His total today was the fifth highest of the tournament thus far.

All but one game was washed out of this last week so nice to have a full compliment of games starting on time.

The pick of the games is first place Free State travelling to Port Elizabeth to play second place Eastern Province.

EP won the toss and elected to bat first and Lesiba Ngoepe made hay while the sun shone to get 135 - his highest First Class score. He was rather let down by the rest of his team as the highest score from any other player was 35. EP were all out for 283.

In reply, FS are 132/4.

Sean Whitehead's century forced FS's agenda today as they opened a first innings lead of 152. FS added 303 runs before declaring on 435.

At stumps EP were 82-1 and trailing by 70 runs.

Drawsville beckons.

Drawsville - Population - 22

Eastern Province wanted to bat for the draw and Marco Marais helped them to do that with a century.

The two teams remain first and second in the table.

Another return after the Christmas break for a South African tournament saw Boland, languishing at the foot of the table, take on second place Eastern Province.

Day One saw two centurions and no fewer than eight bowlers as Boland went to stumps on 327-7.

Isma-eel Gafieldien was the most impressive batsmen with a score of 115 off 254 balls. Despite his sides poor showing this season Gafieldien is the seventh highest run scorer .

The Professor wrote:Another return after the Christmas break for a South African tournament saw Boland, languishing at the foot of the table, take on second place Eastern Province.

Day One saw two centurions and no fewer than eight bowlers as Boland went to stumps on 327-7.

Isma-eel Gafieldien was the most impressive batsmen with a score of 115 off 254 balls. Despite his sides poor showing this season Gafieldien is the seventh highest run scorer .

Apologies - this game is against Easterns.

Boland Park is a batsman's paradise this week. 2 more centurions takes this matches tally to four.

Easterns are 259-0 with both their openers on centuries with ex Lanca and Leicestershire batsman Andrea Agathangelou most impressive with 145 from 258 balls.

This turned into less of a cricket game and more of an exhibition of Agathangelou's stamina. The batsman batted all day as well as a majority of yesterday in pursuit of his highest ever score of 313 - he was out two overs before hands were shaken for the draw.

Andrea Agathangelou really is in a rich vein of form at this time.

After his 313 last week and 100 in the one day game after it, he went on to score 93 for the Easterns against Gauteng today. His score contributed to Easterns total of 387-9d - a lead of 145.

Easterns turned the screw even more by getting Gauteng 8-1 in the 3 overs before stumps.

Due to rain all of the matches in this round ended as draws.

Only 18 overs were played in the game between Gauteng and Easterns. Given the time the Easterns would have had the winning of this as Clayton August managed to snaffle two wickets but draw it is.

In one of the other drawn games, it was a good fixture for Ruan Terblanche who got his second century in three games and got Boland to 417-d against KwaZulu Natal-Inland. KZNI were forced to follow on after only getting 165 in their first innings and were 328-8 when hands were shaken. A moral victory for Boland.

South Western Districts and Western Province were sandwiched together in the table before the start of their game yesterday but WP are about to subject them to a huge loss.

After declaring on 314 for 8 yesterday and then getting SWD 5-2 at stumps, the Cape Town based side continued to take wickets at a startling rate of knots. SWD were forced to follow on when they got just 110 in their first innings wherein only batsmen 2, 9, 10 and 11 got out of single figures. Justin Dill got 6 in the first innings and would go on to bag a further in the second dig.

It was a similar tune int he second inning as they got to 111-5 - still 93 runs behind.

The question is whether it will be an innings victory or not.

The Professor wrote:
The question is whether it will be an innings victory or not.

The answer to this question was; yes....and fairly comfortably.

South Western Districts could only get to within 31 wickets of Western Province's first innings total and lost the game by an innings.

SWD could only add a further 62 runs from their final five wickets.

Ryan Klein got 3 of those 5 batsmen out to finish with figures of 4-42.

WP are still in fifth but draw 15 points away from SWD with this win.