Centurion: As the man who help build the side which played in two finals last season, Peter Kirsten has some respect for Border, especially the way the Eastern Cape visitors landed a solid punch which flattened Northerns last season.

A side which has taken seven years to develop and earned respect for their tenacity under pressure, Border have shaken off the small union image which has long been the tag by which the arrogant big city media quaintly refer to as country cousins.

Whether they are capable of maintaining that focus in the SuperSport Series game in Centurion this weekend is another matter. Certainly Northerns have moved on since they turned their season around last year and came close enough to playing Border in the A Section final in East London. The Northerns skipper, Mark Davis, agrees it is yet another big game for his side.

A week ago Davis remarked how Northerns would be judged from the game they played against Gauteng last weekend which ended in a draw when the visitors decided to bat on instead of declaring more than 100 runs behind Northerns. It is the sort of tactic Ken Rutherford would have employed as he believed in the bold approach.

As it was Northerns did most of the running in the game and as many conveniently forget Davis had only three frontline bowlers to call on during the Gauteng first innings of 337. Yet he has been criticised for a ``negative approach''. How different it would have been had Steve Elworthy been match-fit: the Test cap’s deceptive pace and swing bowling penetration was sorely missed through that Gauteng innings. He will be fit and relaxed though for the Border outing.

It would have been different too had the bowling of the left-arm spinner, Clive Eksteen, over the wicket, been more attacking instead of negative. It makes you wonder where we are heading with this sort of attack and its general purpose.

The umpires have the mechanism in the playing conditions to call the wide but for some reason are reluctant to apply the measure. Cyril Mitchley, the former ICC Test panel umpire, had no hesitation in Kimberly a couple of weeks ago of ticking off one of the Griqualand West bowlers, Adri Swanepoel, a left-arm medium dobbler for a similar tactic against Gauteng.

Swanepoel was quick to realise he was not going to get away with it and went back to a more attacking mode. Perhaps the umpires need to be a little more vigilant although it is also a matter of interpretation. Mitchley was acting, as he did when calling Dominic Cork in the Port Elizabeth Test during England’s last tour of South Africa, under Law 42.2 (fair and unfair play).

Kirsten agrees with Mitchley thoughts and there is no doubt Border are aware of their former captain’s strong views on what he feels is a strategy against the spirit of the game. Which means, hopefully, they are unlikely to adopt such a tactic.

As it is Border put together a useful total against novices Easterns and only rain prevented a result favourable to last summer’s losing SuperSport Series finalists. Which supports the theory that rain, and large dollops of it, will rescue Deon Jordaan’s side from thrashings against such teams as Gauteng and lowly Griqualand West.

Then again Easterns remind you of a second league club which lugs all their kit around in a large canvas bag with a first aid box which contains a strip band aids, panardo, smelling salts to revive the captain after each day’s play and a bottle of medicinal brandy. The manager or coach usually consumes the latter, by the end of the third day after another defeat.

Naturally the Northerns critics were grumbling on Monday. Gauteng had failed to impress anyone: their batting was fair from what was expected of a team loaded with Test and LOI players and David Terbrugge apart, it was more of a case of hoping a brave smile would do the trick. Gauteng, minus their overseas star, Kenny Benjamin, who still seems to be enjoying a spot of sun bathing in Antigua, are also battling to get their media accreditation out and for their game against Eastern Province, those who do not still have last season’s passes are being issued with ``emergency passes''.

Northerns, however, have also come to terms with their image as one of the top provinces in the country. The batsmen have also learnt what it means to be patient in their approach to the longer game, which, as Davis points out, is a sign of a maturity.  He gambled when he decided to bat first on a pitch which, with past experience as a guide, could have seen the side reduced to 50 for six at lunch on the first day.

Not at all a comforting thought. It shows, though, just how this particular side has developed under Kirsten’s style of coaching and Davis’ captaincy. ``They all know that we are a good one-day side but now we are also putting it together in the four-day game,'' said Davis. ``The way we played against Gauteng, despite the absence of a frontline bowler, proved to me that we have also become one of the top teams at A Section level as well.''

No doubt the national selectors also have an interest in the match with Mark Boucher, the man in possession, under threat from Nic Pothas. Just who of the five ``wise men'' rock in Centurion tomorrow for the SuperSport Series match is also a matter of drawing the short straw.

Northerns (from):

Rudolf Steyn, Quentin Still, Neil McKenzie, Martin van Jaarsveld, Gerald Dros, Johan Myburgh, Steve Elworthy, Mark Davis, Mpho Pedi, David Townsend, Greg Smith Rudi Bryson

Border:

Pieter Strydom (capt), Piet Botha, Mark Boucher, Vasbert Drakes, Laden Gamiet, Tyron Henderson, Geoff Love, Steven Pope, Dion Taljaard, Brad White, Wayne Wiblin. Twelfth man: Malibongwe Maketa