Ken Borland

The Titans may be on a six-game winning streak while the KZN Dolphins just scraped into the last four by winning their last game, but Northerns coach Mandla Mashimbyi knows Friday’s CSA T20 Challenge semi-final is going to be no walk in the park for his high-flying team.

The Dolphins are still waiting on the fitness of ace batsman David Miller, who has a hamstring strain, but they have other potent potential matchwinners in paceman Eathan Bosch, spinner Prenelan Subrayen, all-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo and batting kingpin Khaya Zondo.

“Winning six-out-of-seven games is no small feat and we need to enjoy that,” Mashimbyi told The Citizen on Thursday, “but the Dolphins are a formidable team in their own right.

“They have been the best white-ball team in the country for the last three years and we know that they are going to bring everything. The fact they are in the semis means they are doing something right as well.

“It’s going to be all about what you bring on the day and we will never take them lightly. We have to make sure we bring the intensity,” Mashimbyi said.

Working in the Titans’ favour, however, is that they seem to be on a similarly high-flying trajectory to when they won the T20 competition three times in a row between 2015/16 and 2017/18. They are playing with the confidence of a team that knows and executes its plan, and how to adapt when necessary.

“We must have done something right to get here, so the guys can take confidence out of that instead of feeling pressure in a knockout game. It’s a good opportunity to go out and have some fun,” Mashimbyi said.

“The guys should feel good about themselves and what is pleasing is the work they have put into what was initially a bumpy process. Different guys are putting their hands up.

“And I look forward to seeing who will be the game-changer in the semi-final, if one of our players can get the man of the match award then we will probably win.

“We are a team of 15 and we are in a good space with everyone playing a role. So it could be anyone who plays a matchwinning hand, we believe they are all capable and we have a lot still in the tank,” Mashimbyi said.

Most notably, Proteas stars Quinton de Kock and Tabraiz Shamsi have had good tournaments without ever really taking flight. They are both clearly in good form again and the big stage of a knockout match could well see them at their best.

Western Province take on neighbours Boland in Friday’s other semi-final.

Given they have already fielded one debutant in the batting line-up in Sarel Erwee, one could sense Proteas captain Dean Elgar’s unease when it comes to introducing another new face for the second Test against New Zealand starting in Christchurch at midnight on Wednesday evening South African time, but making runs right now is surely the embattled Aiden Markram’s last safe port of call.

Markram was far from the only failure in a first Test which saw the Proteas bundled out for embarrassingly low scores of just 95 and 111, but his poor run of form now extends to just 97 runs in his last 10 innings. Captain Elgar admitted on Wednesday that the time for talking is over.

“There is a big possibility of a couple of changes, no doubt,” Elgar said. “Conditions and weather will play a part, but some guys are low on confidence, especially in the batting. But it’s difficult for debutants to come in and make a play.

“Aiden is a tough one and I don’t need to speak to him anymore. We’ve had a lot of tough conversations, he needs to score runs and his position is vulnerable at the moment.

“He knows that. There’s no need for me to harp on about it. He needs to contribute, he’s in a very important position in the top-order. We can’t afford to carry guys in positions like that.

“We’ve had a lot of very good conversations over the last few weeks that have definitely resonated with him. But I need him now to return the favours,” Elgar said.

Apart from the uncertainty surrounding Markram, South Africa have also suffered a blow to their bowling hopes with the news that Lungi Ngidi is still on the road to recovery from his back strain and will not be available for the second Test either.

The Proteas bowlers made the spiteful Hagley Oval pitch look like a road at times, so poorly did they bowl, and Elgar would have loved to have the accurate and probing Ngidi as an option, coming in for Glenton Stuurman, who showed promise with the new ball on debut in the first Test, but grew increasingly flat and ineffective as New Zealand’s massive first innings grew and grew.

If the pitch is considerably flatter after a week of more sunshine than it was for the first Test, then spinner Keshav Maharaj may come into the reckoning. But South Africa are unlikely to not field four pace bowlers, so the left-arm spinner would have to replace a batsman, a risk in itself given what happened last week.

Eyebrows would have been raised when KZN captain Prenelan Subrayen said “we know our score is on par, very competitive”, after the Dolphins posted just 148/5 against Western Province in their crucial CSA T20 Challenge match at St George’s Park on Wednesday.

He was dead right though as WP were bundled out for just 83 as KZN stormed to victory by 65 runs and a place in Friday’s semi-finals.

Bryce Parsons, mixing left-arm orthodox with wrist-spin, took 3/22, but Subrayen (4-0-17-2), Andile Phehlukwayo (3-0-16-2) and Ottneil Baartman (2-0-16-2) were also all amongst the wickets.

Sent in to bat, KZN had to recover from  a disastrous start as they slumped to 13/3 against the spin of George Linde (4-0-24-2) and Aviwe Mgijima (4-0-25-2). WP’s other spinner, Junaid Dawood, took 1/15 in his four overs.

But KZN recovered superbly thanks to Khaya Zondo’s defiant 59 not out off 51 balls, Ruan de Swardt (22) and Parsons (28 off 22) batting well around him.

Phehlukwayo then provided the boost at the end as he blasted 25 not out off 10 deliveries.

The Eastern Province Warriors have become a team to love but they fell short of winning their last game, going down by 10 runs to the North-West Dragons.

North-West batted first and Heino Kuhn enjoyed himself in a punishing 78 off 57 balls, and with lovely cameos from Delano Potgieter (29 off 22) and Senuran Muthusamy (24* off 11), they posted 169/5.

For EP, Lesiba Ngoepe scored a sparkling 43 off 28 deliveries and captain Sinethemba Qeshile (24 off 13) and experienced Rudi Second (29 off 14) launched a daring late onslaught which ended when both were dismissed by Duan Jansen in the penultimate over.

Lwandiswa Zuma took 3/25 for NW, while Muthusamy’s wonderful tournament continued with 1/15 in his four overs.

When Chloe Tryon first started playing international cricket back in 2010, South Africa were not considered prime contenders when it came to ICC tournaments. Now, as they prepare for the Women’s World Cup in New Zealand, the Proteas are under ever-more scrutiny as the second-ranked team in ODIs.

It is a pressure the 28-year-old Tryon says they are growing more accustomed to all the time, having learnt plenty of tough lessons from their semi-final exits in the 2017 World Cup and the 2020 T20 World Cup.

“We’ve come close before but been disappointed, so this tournament is about taking the next step,” Tryon said on Wednesday. “We have to make sure we keep it simple, tick all our boxes.

“We will treat it as just another game, but we are used to playing in world cups now, it’s time to make that next step and take a bit more responsibility.

“There’s still a long way to go before the World Cup starts on March 5, so at the moment it’s just about putting the building blocks in place. We’ve dreamt about this for a long time, four years and then it took another year to happen,” Tryon said.

South Africa’s previous visit to New Zealand, in 2020, saw them win the ODI series against their powerful hosts, so they will be confident they have the resources for the playing conditions to enable them to push for glory.

They open their campaign against Bangladesh in Dunedin. In the Group Stage, the eight competing sides will participate in a single-league format with each side playing the other once, the format that was previously used in the 2017 tournament. The top four sides following the conclusion of the league matches will progress to the semi-finals, with the winners meeting in the final on April 3 in Christchurch.