Irish eyes are smiling at the Wanderers

Johannesburg - With a surname like Callaghan, it had to be his day. Eastern Province stalwart Dave Callaghan, on St Patrick's Day, turned in superb performance with both bat and ball to earn his side a comfortable 24-run win over Gauteng in the second leg semifinal of the Standard Bank Cup yesterday and ensure there will be a deciding match at the same venue on Sunday (10.15am start).

Callaghan (35) has plenty of fight in him, as he proved by winning a battle against testicular cancer at the height of his career. The veteran of 15 seasons of loyal service to Eastern Province needed a big innings last night after Gauteng captain Clive Eksteen had won the toss and invited the visitors to bat, arriving at the crease with his side deep in the mire at 11 for two and then watching Mark Benfield depart with the score on 33.

Gauteng's new-ball bowlers David Terbrugge and Kenny Benjamin had once again done the business for their side up front, maintaining a disciplined line and length and sharing in the first three wickets to fall.

But the evergreen Callaghan then featured in a 57-run partnership with his captain, Mark Rushmere, who faced 10 balls before opening his account, and was later joined by Murray Creed in a provincial record 102-run alliance for the sixth wicket.

Creed's 47 was his highest contribution in limited-overs cricket and only Eksteen managed to tie the EP batsmen down with a charactertisitically tight spell of left-arm spin bowling that earned him the return of one for 18. Zander de Bruyn had also been economical in his five overs, which cost just 20 runs for the wicket of the potentially dangerous Justin Kemp, but Eksteen inexplicably decided against using him again after his impressive opening spell and instead stuck with the expensive Hall.

Hall bowled too wide too often and paid the penalty, being clubbed for 64 runs in his eight overs. Also, he sent down five wides and bowled three no-balls, leading to Gauteng being penalised an over in their innings.

Callaghan's innings was a joy to behold. He paced his knock to perfection, working the ball around nicely early on and then accelerating towards the end, reaching three figures off the first ball of the final over when he paddled Terbrugge cheekily around the corner for his 14th boundary of the day. He added another four to finish unbeaten on 107, scored off just 112 deliveries.

Gauteng's reply got off to a horrible start, a leading edge by Adam Bacher being well held by Rushmere at mid-off three balls into the innings. Hall, as is his wont, threw the bat at anything in his arc and hit Meyrick Pringle for successive sixes, off the last ball of the third over and the first of the fifth over. But Pringle, wily old campaigner that he is, finally got his man when he switched from over to around the wicket and beat Hall with a full-pitched delivery that re-arranged the Gautenger's stumps.

That wicket of Hall, for a brisk 37, was Pringle's third in what turned out to be an unchanged spell that cost just 24 runs. It was a performance that put Gauteng on the back foot and despite a fighting half-century from De Bruyn, they were always going to struggle to recover from those early setbacks.

Man of the match Callaghan, who these days is no more than military medium paced, proved the value of bowling from wicket to wicket by tearing the heart out of Gauteng's middle order, bowling Geoff Toyana for 23, having Nic Pothas caught behind two balls later and then skittling Solly Ndima. He is one of those bowlers who wobbles the ball around, but he still did well enough to finish with three for 23 and ensure his side remained in a competition they looked like bowing out of after their defeat in the first leg at St George's Park on Wednesday.

- Prices have been reduced for Sunday's match - R10 for adults and R5 for children.