Ashraf Mall’s career-best 77 brightened and otherwise lacklustre match,which Natal won by five wickets with 3.4 overs to spare

Telford Vice15-Dec-2000Ashraf Mall’s career-best 77 brightened and otherwise lacklustre match,which Natal won by five wickets with 3.4 overs to spare.Boland seemed to try and do their best to get it wrong with the bat, andthey succeeded in totalling a mediocre 167 for six. Natal endured a wobbleor two of their own before reaching 171 for five to complete their thirdconsecutive victory.That Boland came as close as they did to a respectable total was almostentirely due to an unbroken stand of 79 struck off 84 balls by StevenPalframan and Con de Lange, a seventh-wicket record for the Wine Farmers.Palframan, the experience of his 93 matches coming through, was 56 not outoff 68 balls with seven fours. Nineteen-year-old De Lange played beyond hisyears in finishing unbeaten on 30.The rest of Boland’s batting was more than a bit like the plot from Dumb andDumber – one silly stroke followed another and not one visiting batsman canclaim to have lost his wicket to a threatening delivery.That said, Natal bowled an intelligent length on a pitch that hinted atharbouring varying bounce. Jon Kent and Eldine Baptiste got it right moreoften than not in taking three for 27 and two for 16 respectively.Mall then showed the Bolanders how it should be done with a polished inningsoff 102 balls with 11 fours. Playing in only his third Standard Bank game,Mall’s other scores are 71 and 40.The left-handed opener’s knock was central to Natal’s innings. He featuredin partnerships of 50 off 66 deliveries for the second wicket with AndrewHudson, who drove lazily at a ball from Bradley Player to be caught at shortcover for 22, and 64 off 82 for the third with Kent, who top-edged his cutoff left-arm spinner De Lange to backward point on 27.Man-of-the-match Mall eventually drove a ball from spinner Justin Ontonguppishly to mid-off in the 35th over.