KwaZulu-Natal Inland Rural's Matthew Dukes' brilliant five wicket haul highlighted the day one action at the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Inland Rural Week in Gauteng on Thursday.
The weather played a significant role across the board on Thursday, however three of the four matches were able to play out to their conclusion.
The KZN Inland Rural side dominated the KZN derby with a 10-wicket win against their KZN Coastal Rural neighbours.
After bowling the Coastal side out for 78 with Dukes dominating with the ball (5/16) and Shaldon Mungaroo (3/13) chipping in as well.
After rain continued to play havoc, the Inland side chased down the required 46 without losing a wicket. Jarryd Walsh (23) and Arshad Desai (18) took their side to a comfortable day one victory.
Northern Cape Rural against Free State Rural was abandoned after rain forced the players off the field in the first innings.
Free State were 171/4 when the players left the field and unfortunately they were unable to return which led to the match being abandoned.
Kellan Oehley (77) top scored while Tshepo Masheshemane (40) also contributed to their total while Etienne Botha (2/43) was the best bowler for Northern Cape.
The Limpopo Rural versus Mpumalanga Rural match went down to the wire in a low scoring affair that eventually saw Mpumalanga pull off a memorable two wicket win over their northerly neighbours.
Bevan Carlse was the hero with the bat making 24 off 19 balls and hitting the winning runs as they made the 82 runs required to win.
Earlier, in another rain-affected clash, Limpopo finished their innings on 94/7 from their revised 28 overs.
Armand Pansegrouw (26) was the most prolific batter for Limpopo while the wickets were shared amongst the Mpumalanga bowlers.
Carse (2/14) was also amongst the wickets as well as the runs.
In another exciting match, Gauteng Rural edged North West Rural by just two runs in their opening match.
Gauteng Rural were bowled out for 157 in just under 36 overs.
Alexander Kok (45) was the top scorer for the Johannesburg side while Dewald Erasmus (30) added some much-needed assistance at the end of the innings.
North West's best bowler was Rynhardt Cilliers (4/25) while Tumelo Makume (3/43) also contributed in restricting Gauteng to 157.
Johan Ranft's 70 off 65 balls wasn't enough for North West who couldn't string significant enough partnerships together as they fell two runs short finishing on 150/9 in their allotted 36 overs.
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