Date-stamped : 26 Sep96 - 14:12
Match report

By Peter Robinson

Reproduced with permission from The Star Newspaper

Lance Klusener's solitary one-day cap was earned in largely
forgettable circumstances against England in East London last
year, but the 25-year-old Natal allrounder served notice at the
Wanderers yesterday that his international ambitions still burn.
Klusener's unbeaten 110 was the outstanding feature of Natal's
comprehensive 59-run victory over Transvaal in a fairly low-key
one-day friendly. The Natalian's aggressive batting and bowling
was one of the features of the South African A tour of England
this year. At times Klusener's approach upset his hosts, but it
is an attitude which would fit nicely into the current South
African team. "I'd just like one or two opportunities," he said
after his century yesterday. "Then it's up to me to make the
most of them." Opening for Natal yesterday, Klusener hit the
ball hard and often during an innings of just 120 balls and
which contained seven fours and three sixes. He shared a bright
55-run partnership for the second wicket with the equally
aggressive Neil Johnson and, later, a stand of 69 with Mark
Bruyns for the fifth wicket as Natal posted a challenging 232/5
in their 45 overs. To be fair, the Transvaal attack functioned
largely as a defence yesterday. Only two wickets fell to the
bowlers as the first three Natal batsmen were all run out and
Natal's dominance of the match continued Transvaal batted. Adam
Bacher and Andrew Hall added 41 for the first wicket but, once
they were dismissed in successive overs, the innings simply lost
all sense of urgency. Between the 10th and 15th overs Transvaal
lost Bacher and Hall and added only five to their total.
Thereafter, the only resistance of any great significance came
from Stefan Jacobs. The long-serving allrounder placed his
team-mates' timidity in perspective as he bludgeoned 68 off 52
balls, sharing a seventh-wicket stand of 83 with Clive Eksteen,
who contributed just 14. Jacobs' efforts took Transvaal a good
deal closer to their target than they really deserved but, after
taking four huge sixes off the Natalians, he was finally caught
down at long-off in search of another. Dale Benkenstein, who had
earlier accounted for Ken Rutherford and Hussein Mannack,
claimed the wicket of Jacobs, trapped Eksteen in front and then
bowled Rowan Lyle to bag five in the innings. The Natal captain
is at best an occasional bowler, a fact which speaks volumes
about the quality of the Transvaal batting.

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