First-Class Matches Australia 2005/06 and 2006/07 and South Africa 2006/07

South African Airways Three-Day Challenge 2006/07 With effect from the 2004/05 season, the domestic structure of South African cricket underwent a complete overhaul. Instead of the traditional eleven provinces, six new ‘franchise’ teams would contest the senior competition, the SuperSport Series. Meanwhile a new three-day competition, also with first-class status, was set up for the provincial sides. For the 2006/07 season, the provincial competition was restructured. Zimbabwe Under-25, who had appeared in 2005/06 but had failed to complete their programme because of financial problems, were dropped from the competition but the other eleven sides were joined by no fewer than six additional teams: Kei, KwaZulu-Natal Inland, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Namibia and South Western Districts. The effect of this was not only, inevitably, to lower still further the calibre of a competition whose entitlement to first-class status was already the subject of serious doubts; but also greatly to increase the number of matches. The editor of the South African Annual , whether for reasons of space or because of reservations about the quality of the cricket, responded by publishing only potted scores in the 2007 edition (having printed full scores in 2005 and 2006). But the South African authorities have definitely ruled the competition as first-class; and, whatever one may think of this decision, the effect is that there is a gap of one season, 2006/07, in which the cards have been printed neither by the South African Annual nor (until now) by the ACS. All matches in the competition are therefore published here, but other first-class matches in South Africa in 2006/07 are not included. (Scores for the SuperSport Series (the senior first-class competition) and the tours by India and Pakistan are published in the 2007 South African Annual; the two Intercontinental Cup matches played in South Africa in 2006/07 appear in Professor Roy Morgan’s book devoted to this competition, published by the ACS in 2011.) The 2006/07 Challenge consisted (as its name suggests) of three-day matches (apart from the final), with an 85-over limitation on each first innings. The 17 sides were grouped into two pools, played on a round-robin basis; the top two sides then contested a four-day final. In Pool A, Gauteng’s dominance was complete: a record of seven wins from eight matches (with the other one drawn) speaks for itself. This impressive performance was, of course, boosted by the ruthless pulverizing of the hapless newly-promoted sides; but established adversaries scarcely fared better, and four of Gauteng’s wins were by an innings. Only Northerns could resist, with an evenly-fought draw. Pool B was more closely contested, with Eastern Province coming out on top by a relatively narrow margin ahead of KwaZulu-Natal and Western Province. The final was well won by Gauteng, who overcame a 47-run first-innings deficit to emerge victorious by 95 runs. Gauteng could also claim the leading run-scorer in the 2006/07 Challenge, the 20-year-old left-hander Jean Symes who, in his second season, made 847 runs at 70.58. Left-arm fast-medium bowler Neil Wagner of Northerns, with 39 at 16.43, claimed most wickets. (He was, of course, to achieve international status in the years to come, but not as a South African.) The experiment of introducing six new teams was, on the whole, a failure. Namibia, the only one of the six with current first-class experience, performed well and finished as runners-up in Pool A (although far behind the runaway winners, Gauteng); while KwaZulu-Natal Inland achieved a 93