All-rounder Albie Morkel was the star in Wednesday’s Road Safety Week game between South Africa Legends and West Indies Legends, pitching in with both bat and ball as his team won comfortably to go second in the points table.
Held at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai, the South African Legend team, skippered by Jonty Rhodes, won the toss and opted to bowl first on a flat wicket. The West Indies team, that has legends like Daren Ganga, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Brian Lara and Samuel Badree, got off to a decent start, scoring 48 in the first seven overs, but quick wickets meant that they collapsed to 66 for 3, before fighting knocks from Ricardo Powell (30 in 17) and Carl Hooper (23 in 18) got the Windies team to 143 for 8 in their quota of overs. Lara, the captain of the side, was unable to get going, scoring 4 in 8.
For the South African team, Paul Harris and Albie Morkel shared five wickets between them and were economical as well as they stalled the run flow in the middle overs. Morkel returned with figures of 3 for 31, while Harris starred with 3 for 21 in 4 overs.
In reply, the Proteas legends got off to the worst possible start, with Herschelle Gibbs getting dismissed in the second over off the bowling of Tino Best, while his opening partner Jacques Rudolph followed soon, bowled by Adam Sanford.
The side lost two more quick wickets and collapsed to 42 for 4 in 8.4 overs, and was in serious trouble before the duo of Morkel and Jonty Rhodes got together. The duo turned back the clock and were at their aggressive best, as they took the team over the line with nine balls to go. Rhodes smashed 53 in 40 with the help of six fours and a six at a strike rate of 132.50, while all-rounder Morkel scored 54 in just 30 with two sixes and six fours. His strike rate was 180, and he deservedly received the Man of the Match Award.
This was South Africa Legends’ first win the short tournament.
