West Indian reject Benjamin handy weapon for Gauteng

If Courtney Walsh is considered too valuable to the West Indies attack to leave out of their side at the age of 37, consider then the case for 32-year-old Antiguan reject Kenny Benjamin now plying his trade for Gauteng.

It could be that, as with many from the Caribbean, he fell out of favour with Brian Lara, the ultimate egotist who led the West Indies as the lurched from one disaster to the next during last summer circus of South Africa.

Whatever the reason, Benjamin has become a handy weapon for Gauteng as they try to rescue some sort of image out of an average season. Not that the Leeward Islander, whose career best is a seven for 51 against Lara Trinidad and Tobago when the left-hander was of a more humble, pleasant nature as he made his way in the world. It is a lesson for all.

Yesterday Benjamin, the third West Indian fast bowler employed by Gauteng, since the rebel era, collected his second five wicket haul in a SuperSport Series Super Eights match against KawZulu/Natal. His 5 for 34 in 15 overs against Natal was a little short of a South African best 5 for 22 against lowly ranked Easterns.

Not that Natal batted all that well. With their top-order shot away by Benjamin ability to use the conditions and damp pitch as well at the heavy atmosphere, the were always going to battle on a Chris Scott prepared pitch which was far more generous towards the batsmen than was the case with the first Test against England almost a month ago.

Contracted after Gauteng unctuous effort to lure Steve Elworthy from Northerns failed, Benjamin arrived later than the coaching staff of Rodney Ontong and Mark ODonnell would have liked.

This oddly matched duo, highly sensitive to the slightest hint of media criticism of Gauteng failings, or of their charges, even when it is justified, are quick to brush over the cracks in the system by pointing to Benjamin name at the head of bowling averages list before the start of the game against Natal.

Not that five wickets against batting paupers such as Easterns is anything to tub thump about.

The night Gauteng main sponsors, Datatech, launched the season with a number of awards, we had some DJ trotting out the sort of eulogies which had Ontong and ODonnell wondering if both the SuperSport and Standard Bank trophies were already locked up in the dusty trophy cabinet.

It says little for Gauteng resources that they had to buy from elsewhere a hired gun to earn some of that success which has seen them move to second spot on the Super Eights log behind Border. First they had the now late Sylvester Clarke, then it was Rod Estwick; now the third West Indian fast bowler has been signed to bail them out.

At least Border took the points from their outright win over Gauteng at the Wanderers through to the Super Eights, a result which no doubt still rankles with Ontong and ODonnell.

Perhaps some of Natal indifferent batting yesterday helped Gauteng cause with a lead of 4-3 in bonus points. Generally Natal first innings score of 264 was a disappointing effort. At an early close because of bad light Gauteng had reached 48 without loss, 216 behind with Adam Bacher not out on 28 and Sven Koening on 14.

They had to work just as hard at time for their runs with the scoring rate of 2.4 while the bowling combination of left-handers Ross Veenstra and Gary Gilder giving away 15 runs in their collective opening spell of 13 overs.

Which showed the value of Benjamin's efforts. Topping the national bowling averages going into the game with 16 at 13.50 he bowled skilfully and managed to get some impressive sideways movement after Natal captain Dale Benkenstein won the toss and elected to bat first.

His opening spell of 6-5-6-3 accounted for Doug Watson (0), Mark Bruyns (9) and Andrew Hudson (7) with his first victim, Watson, falling lbw to only the second ball he bowled.

Sharing the new ball with David Terbrugge, the lanky Antiguan bowled three spells with his first by far the most impressive.

Terbrugge was steady and at times unfortunate to end with two for 48 while the Gauteng captain, Clive Eksteen bowled an unbroken spell of 23 overs, all from the Corlett Drive end, and in the end his figures of two for 73 in 25 overs were a tribute to his tenacity.

Natal's problem was that they were unable to build any substantial partnerships with the best between Errol Stewart with a solid 63 and the former SA under-19 cap, Ahmed Amla whose 49 off 75 balls in a partnership of 69 for the fifth wicket was a bold rescue effort to take the score from 58 for four to 127 for five.

The other 50 partnership was Stewart and Jon Kent with 32 off 80 balls. There was always movement through the air and off the pitch with the batsmen rarely able to drive with about 60 percent of the scoring strokes, especially off Eksteen either square or behind the wicket. Only two of the five bound ray stokes off Benjamin's bowling were in front of the wicket. The first was a cover drive by Hudson while Stewart's was an on-drive which left the fieldsmen groping.

Terbrugge's last spell was as remarkable for its control as it was for quality, getting rid of Stewart and Kent while five over throws blemished his figures of 8-0-19-2. His ability to break up two partnerships which set about rebuilding Natal's confidence was as good as anything he has bowled this season.