Ken Borland

There is no doubt Duane Vermeulen is still highly valued at Loftus Versfeld, but having swept the board in two national awards ceremonies in the last 10 days it was a surprise that he was pipped to the main prize in the Bulls’ awards evening in Pretoria on Friday night.

The stalwart Springbok eighthman was named both the SA Rugby overall Player of the Year and the Players’ Player of the Year at separate functions, but on Friday night he had to settle for being the Bulls’ Currie Cup Player of the Year and the fans’ player of the year as voted for on the Bulls’ app.

Instead it was the indefatigable fellow loose forward Marco Van Staden, who will leave the Bulls in June, and the inspirational comeback kid Cornal Hendricks who shared the overall Player of the Year award for the franchise. So outstanding were their displays that, for the first since the inception of the awards, the Bulls decided to share the main prize.

Bright young attacking talents Stravino Jacobs and David Kriel were named the most improved and newcomer of the year respectively, while scrumhalf Ivan van Zyl’s stellar efforts in directing the backline were rewarded with the Super Rugby Unlocked Back of the Year award, with Hendricks claiming the same title for the Currie Cup.

Much of the Bulls’ Currie Cup success was down to their excellence at source and tighthead prop Trevor Nyakane was the Forward of the Year for that competition, with the untiring lock Ruan Nortje winning for Super Rugby Unlocked.

You get diverse reactions from players to their own magnificent individual performances that ensure a team triumph, but Lizelle Lee’s self-deprecation after her superb unbeaten century took South Africa to victory over India in the third ODI at Lucknow on Friday was utterly charming.

Lee scored a remarkable 132 not out off 131 balls to steer South Africa to victory and a 2-1 lead in the five-match series, after they were set a daunting 249 for the win. It was the third highest ODI score ever for the Proteas women’s team and the fourth highest in international women’s cricket in a chase. In her last 9 ODIs dating back to the start of 2020, Lee has scored 472 runs at an average of 67.42. Her strike-rate has been 86.44, figures only a handful of batters have been able to better lately.

“I’m definitely not one of the best openers in the game, but I am striving to be one. I have to be more consistent though and I hope that happens because I’ve been working extremely hard. To be honest, I always have the same game-plan – see ball, hit ball. The only change I’ve made is to try not hit in the air as much as I used to because I was getting out caught a lot,” Lee said after her career-best effort.

The hard-hitting 28-year-old also had plenty of praise for her team-mates.

“The credit should go to the bowlers because India were on their way to more than 300 and it was outstanding how they pulled them back, that was very crucial. Mignon du Preez also played an excellent innings and showed that partnerships are key. She’s full of confidence at the moment and hitting the ball well, she showed her experience very well,” Lee said.

Lee certainly has the explosive properties one wants at the top of the innings, being able to batter the ball to the boundary with relatively low-risk shots in the powerplay. Her power is well-known as she has been a key figure in the Big Bash League for the two Melbourne sides – the Stars and the Renegades.

On Friday she showed she has the ability to not only set up innings with her dominant strokeplay, but the composure to manage a tight run-chase as well – South Africa needed 26 off 21 balls in Lucknow when the rain arrived and play was called off, leaving them six runs ahead of the DLS par-score.

Another Aiden Markram century, 96 from Reeza Hendricks and five-wicket hauls for both Kagiso Rabada and Lutho Sipamla highlighted an excellent day’s cricket at the Wanderers on Thursday as the Imperial Lions go into the final day of their Four-Day Franchise Series match against the Titans with a lead of 251 runs and four wickets in hand.

Resuming on 169 for five, the Titans made it to 202, a deficit of just four runs, thanks to Markram’s brilliantly composed 100, an innings of great judgement and strokeplay.

The Lions endured a frustrating time in the field, Markram enjoying a couple more lives, before fast bowler Sipamla bowled superbly to the tail as the Titans crashed from 187 for five for 202 all out.

Rabada, who enjoyed impressive rhythm throughout, bowled overnight batsman Dayyaan Galiem (17) off the inside edge to finish with five for 51 in 23 quality overs.

Sipamla then took an extraordinary four wickets in an over to wrap up the innings, including trapping Markram lbw with a delivery that jagged back and kept a bit low. The exciting 22-year-old finished with career-best figures of five for 37 in 14 overs.

Buoyed by their excellent finish in the field, the Lions top-order quickly slipped into positive mode after the early loss of first-innings hero Dominic Hendricks, who was caught behind off Lizaad Williams for a single.

Ryan Rickelton threaded beautiful drives through the infield and hooked the first ball after lunch for six as he stroked a promising 58, while Reeza Hendricks scored 96 in languid but fluent fashion.

Proteas stars Rassie van der Dussen (14) and Temba Bavuma (5) both fell to the tricky skills of Galiem.

Okuhle Cele slipped up by having Wiaan Mulder caught off a no-ball when he had 17, and although he nicked off Reeza Hendricks, the all-rounder had gone to 35 not out when the sun slinked behind a cloud and the umpires stopped play for bad light just after 5pm.

*At St George’s Park, the Warriors, resuming 146 runs in arrears, began with caution as Ed Moore and Gihahn Cloete (65) took their opening stand of 88 overnight to 145 before Cloete was bowled by Ruan de Swardt.

Moore continued to dominate in a partnership of 100 for the second wicket with Yaseen Vallie (45), but then the wickets began to tumble.

Left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj was once again the most lethal bowler, taking six for 93 in 33.2 overs as the Warriors collapsed from 245 for one to 345 all out.

Moore ended a tough season for himself on a high note as he fought his way to an impressive 155.

The collapse left the Dolphins needing just 112 for victory and they closed on eight without loss, needing just 104 more runs on Friday to confirm they will be hosting the final against the Titans next week.

*Thanks to Pieter Malan’s phenomenal record-breaking innings of 264, the Cape Cobras were able to declare on 523 for eight, with a lead of 342 in the kitty, against the Knights at Newlands.

Left-arm spinner George Linde had then grabbed four wickets for just two runs at one stage as the Knights crashed to 106 for seven at stumps. Farhaan Behardien is their only remaining recognised batsman, on 36 not out.

Malan’s 264 was the highest ever score for the Cobras, in their final game, beating the 260 not out JP Duminy made against the Lions in Paarl in 2015/16. The 655-minute innings, spanning 507 balls, was a monument to Malan’s patience and hunger to go big for his team.

Kyle Verreynne took his tally of runs for the campaign to 680 at 97.14 as he supported Malan in a stand of 217 for the fifth wicket with a brilliant knock of 109.

Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi bowling and Quinton de Kock and Temba Bavuma batting, although not in concert, will be the entertainment to savour when the Four-Day Franchise Series pool stage comes to an end with the televised Jukskei Derby between the Imperial Lions and the Titans at the Wanderers starting on Tuesday.

While Rabada and Bavuma both played key roles in the Lions’ triumphant T20 Challenge campaign, and Ngidi was superb for the Titans, De Kock was last seen in action during the ill-fated Tests in Pakistan more than a month ago. Since then the wicketkeeper/batsman has been relieved of the Proteas captaincy that was clearly weighing him down, and the Titans, who are looking to secure their place in the four-day final, will be hoping a refreshed De Kock is able to make sweet music with his bat.

The Titans, with 86.84 points, are trying to hold off the Warriors (72.68) to win Pool B and qualify for the final from March 25-29. Beating the Lions, who are out of contention at the bottom of Pool A, will not only assure the Titans of top spot in their pool but could allow them to overtake the points tallies of the Knights (102.08) and Dolphins (100.92) and host the final. But that would depend on neither the Knights beating the Cape Cobras at Newlands nor the Dolphins winning against the Warriors in Pot Elizabeth.

“Trying to fit Lungi, Quinny and Heinrich Klaasen back into this side is the sort of problem I like to have,” Titans coach Mandla Mashimbyi said. “But the danger is that you can have all the names in the book, but you still have to go out and do the job. So the message I will keep pushing is that you are now Titans players, not Proteas, and you have to look after this blue badge now,” Mashimbyi said, putting his hand to the logo on his shirt.

The Lions and Titans may geographically be close, but there is always a fierce rivalry between the two sides and the hosts will certainly not be lacking motivation at the Wanderers. Especially since they suffered a disappointing defeat against the Dolphins at their stronghold earlier this week, which ended their chances of defending their four-day title.