Ken Borland

Experienced left-arm spinner Ryan Houbert took three for 22 to lead the Global Gladiators to a 53-run victory over the Nashua Phantoms on the first day of the Northerns Bash at SuperSport Park yesterday, stabbing at the heart of the defending champions’ campaign for a second title in the T20 competition.

Houbert was brought into the attack as early as the third over and removed opener Gerry Pike, to a wonderful, leaping one-handed catch by Ethy Mbhalati at deep mid-on, to immediately undermine the Phantoms’ pursuit of 157 for victory.

The CBC Old Boys 31-year-old then dismissed Jason Brooker (4) and Danie Rossouw  (13) in the 11^th over to leave the Phantoms on 66 for five and well on their way to defeat.

They eventually staggered to 103 all out in 17.2 overs, thanks chiefly to Shaun von Berg scoring 24 not out. Their key batsmen contrived to get themselves out – opener Blake Schraader being run out attempting a crazy second run for 23, Qaasim Adams (10) being bowled by Cobus Pienaar as he swung across the line, and Roelof van der Merwe (8) hoicking Sammy Mofokeng to deep cover.

Medium-pacer Mofokeng was the other bowler to excel for the Gladiators, taking two for 16 in his four overs.

Van der Merwe had earlier produced a superb display of spin bowling at the death to restrict the Gladiators to 156 for five after they had reached 100 for two with seven overs left. The left-arm spinner claimed two for 25 in four overs, while left-arm paceman Rowan Richards grabbed a wicket and was economical, and off-spinner Eden Links also produced a tidy spell of four overs for 27 runs.

A top-class innings of 53 off 51 balls by Ryk Eksteen laid a solid platform for the Gladiators, sharing a second-wicket stand of 54 off 51 deliveries with Lerato Kgoatle (31) and putting on 61 off 43 balls for the third wicket with Farhaan Behardien, who survived a chance on 1 and went on to score 23 off 18.

The second match of the day was also a one-sided affair, with the Tornados beating the Pirates by 51 runs.

Aiden Markram provided the initial momentum up front for the Tornados with his 32 off 19 balls and his fellow Tuks star, Theunis de Bruyn, kept the scoreboard moving with 29 off 20 deliveries.

Titans stars Henry Davids (26) and Mangaliso Mosehle (21) also batted well to take the Tornados to 100 for two after 12 overs, before the innings soured as the Pirates used five spinners to good effect.

Lanky off-spinner Ruben Claassen was the best of the Pirates bowlers as he dismissed Markram, caught behind by Heinrich Klaasen, with his first delivery and conceded just 13 runs in three overs.

David Wiese was also impressive with one for 22 in four overs, but the star of the innings was Graeme van Buuren, who scored 35 not out off 20 balls. He lifted the Tornados from 138 for five at the start of the final over to 162 for five, belting three sixes off wrist-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi.

Fast bowler Gerhard Linde was too much of a handful for the Pirates top-order, removing Jeandre Jumat and Ruan Olivier cheaply, while Corbin Bosch was also impressive with the new ball.

The required run-rate was already over nine when the Pirates’ two best batsman, Klaasen and Wiese, were brought together, and the Tornados bowlers executed their plans well to ensure they could not snatch control away.

Klaasen was dismissed by off-spinner Markram and Wiese was snapped up by Davids, who took two for 10 in three overs to finish the job started by Linde and Bosch.

The Pirates innings eventually closed on 111 for eight.

The Tornados, who boast the strongest batting line-up on paper, now take on the Phantoms, the defending champions who have to win tomorrow to stay in the race.

Scores in brief

Gladiators 156-5 (Lerato Kgoatle 31, Ryk Eksteen 53, Farhaan Behardien 23; Roelof van der Merwe 2-25). Phantoms 103 (Blake Schraader 23, Shaun von Berg 24*; Sammy Mofokeng 2-16, Ryan Houbert 3-22). Gladiators won by 53 runs.

Tornados 162-5 (Henry Davids 26, Aiden Markram 32, Theunis de Bruyn 29, Mangaliso Mosehle 21, Graeme van Buuren 35*). Pirates 111-8 (Shershan Naidoo 33, David Wiese 24; Gerhard Linde 2-13, Henry Davids 2-10). Tornados won by 51 runs.

Former captain Graeme Smith is highly impressed by the recent performances of the South African one-day side, but believes the success in the Zimbabwe triangular series was soured by the lack of opportunity given to the middle-order.

JP Duminy scored 51 in one innings but only managed another 51 runs in his other four innings, two of which were undefeated.

David Miller could only score 13 runs in three brief innings, Ryan McLaren batted twice for 30 runs and Rilee Rossouw also only batted twice, scoring a duck and 36.

“They’ve really done well and for me winning in Sri Lanka was the big one. Zimbabwe was great for their confidence. Australia were a bit undercooked, but there was needle in those games and it’s always lekker to beat them. We’re beating them more than ever before, here, over there and in other places.

“Our top five can really win games and set a platform, but I worry a bit about our middle-order. It’s a really difficult place to bat in and I think we need to give more opportunity to those guys, get them batting up the order in warm-up games or the softer matches. They must get batting, that will get them confidence and it will change the whole dynamic of the side,” Smith told The Pretoria News.

Smith said he felt particularly sorry for Miller, who either came in to bat with very few deliveries remaining or with the top-order having fallen cheaply.

“We know his ability and I think he should have been pushed up the order against Zimbabwe. That’s what should happen in the softer games. A guy like him needs both clarity in terms of his role and confidence,” South Africa’s captain in a record 149 ODIs said.

Smith also backed leg-spinner Imran Tahir as the man who will probably be the first-choice spinner for the World Cup early next year in Australia and New Zealand.

“I think Imran is a terrific short-form bowler, he picks up wickets and he’s difficult to attack because he turns the ball both ways. A finger spinner, if he doesn’t get big turn, can be lined up and go for 50 or 60 runs without the batsmen taking any risks. The smaller boundaries in New Zealand mean you probably won’t play two specialist spinners there, especially since JP Duminy is basically a frontline bowler now.

“Imran is the sort of bowler who can create things, he’s a partnership breaker and he takes pressure off the seamers. If you don’t have a spinner taking wickets then the seamers can be over-bowled and then they’re tired at the death,” Smith said.

The recently-retired left-hander said the need for wicket-taking bowlers remained a strong conviction of his.

“You need impact bowlers, both spinners and pacemen. In one-day cricket, if you can have game-changers with the ball then it makes a big difference.”

Smith also said the role of the selectors was crucial in getting the balance of the side right for the World Cup.

“A lot of the time, the balance of the side is about gut feel. But the selectors need to create consistency in the build-up to the World Cup. Those last two or three places in the squad are also crucial and the management have to have confidence in them if they decide to play the extra batsman or extra bowler. You don’t want things to suddenly start changing once you’re at the World Cup,” Smith warned.

“But we’ll obviously feel more at home in the conditions in New Zealand and Australia. Eighty percent of the time now you play in sub-continental conditions, but this World Cup will suit our style of play. Spinners will still be effective because the boundaries are big, so rotating the strike is key,” Smith said.

The 33-year-old is now a full-time employee of major cricket sponsors Momentum, marking the start of his business career and confirming that he has turned down the approaches of the Big Bash in Australia and of his own Cape Cobras side to play in the Champions League.

“My relationship with Momentum started back in 2003 and it’s a great place to start my business life. I’ll also be doing work with Cricket South Africa on the cultural identity of the Proteas, which is something very close to my heart, as well as some leadership consulting, public speaking, that sort of thing. So I won’t be going to the Big Bash to play for Perth Scorchers or to the Champions League with the Cobras,” Smith confirmed.

Club cricketers get a huge opportunity to increase their values in the Titans set-up as the Northerns Bash T20 tournament gets underway at SuperSport Park this morning.

The Northerns Bash involves four corporately-sponsored teams – the Nashua Phantoms, Global Gladiators, TMM Capital Investments Tornados and W.A.D. Holdings Pirates – in a round-robin competition that throws together the current Titans stars, provincial players from the Northerns team and the cream of club cricket in the province.

The attempts to include some of the biggest names in South African T20 cricket have soured slightly with the withdrawal of fast bowler Marchant de Lange and all-rounder Albie Morkel, but there is still the delightful prospect of Titans stars Roelof van der Merwe and Heino Kuhn, Shaun von Berg and Mangaliso Mosehle, and Ethy Mbhalati and David Wiese going head-to-head against each other.

The Phantoms, skippered by Van der Merwe, are the defending champions and the left-arm spinner said although losing De Lange and two other seamers in JP de Villiers and Wayne Scott was a disappointment, he was happy that he would still have an attack capable of winning the second edition of the Northerns Bash.

“Marchant has gone off to play in the Champions League for Kolkata, while JP is on honeymoon and Wayne is injured, but our strength is our three spinners – myself, Shaun von Berg and Eden Links. I think that could be a crucial factor because we know what the pitches are like this time of year,” Van der Merwe told The Pretoria News yesterday.

The experienced former international said the key to repeating their success would be how well they executed their skills both at the start of the innings and at the end.

“We want to repeat the way we started with the bat last time, with Blake Schraader up front just killing the bowling, which gave us good starts and then also be as good again with our death bowling. We want to be clinical in the last five overs when we’re bowling and in the first eight overs when we’re batting,” Van der Merwe said.

The left-handed Schraader, whose only representative cricket has been for the Mpumulanga U19s, is a prime example of a young talent that has a greater chance of reaching his potential thanks to the exposure he gains in the Northerns Bash.

Van der Merwe is not the sort of character to consume too much energy worrying about the opposition, but he did mention the Tornados as having an “unbelievable team on paper” and said even the Pirates, who will rely heavily on Wiese and Heinrich Klaasen in the absence of the injured Morkel, cannot be discounted.

Squads

Phantoms: Roelof van der Merwe, Shaun von Berg, Qaasim Adams, Aya Myoli, Eden Links, Rowan Richards, Jason Brooker, Henk Coetzee, Gerry Pike, Brandon le Roux, Niki Bouwer, Blake Schraader, Stefan Klopper, Danie Rossouw.

Gladiators: Lerato Kgoatle, Cobus Pienaar, Ethy Mbhalati, Bafana Mahlangu, Sean Dickson, Tertius Gouws, Murray Coetzee, Ryan Houbert, Farhaan Behardien, Sean Nowak, Ruan Sadler, Evan Jones, Ryk Eksteen, Sammy Mofokeng.

Tornados: Heino Kuhn, Mangaliso Mosehle, Graeme van Buuren, Henry Davids, Theunis de Bruyn, Junior Dala, Aiden Markram, Corbin Bosch, Thomas Kaber, Jacques Snyman, Gerhard Linde, Sean Phillips, David Mogotlane, Tyler Easton.

Pirates: Heinrich Klaasen, Ruan Olivier, David Wiese, Eldred Hawken, Shershan Naidoo, Tian Koekemoer, Dean Foxcroft, Tom Khoza, Wian van Heerden, Ruben Claassen, Tabraiz Shamsi, Jeandre Jumat, Willem Britz, Schalk van Heerden.

Fixtures

Today: 10am Gladiators v Phantoms; 1.30pm Pirates v Tornados.

Tomorrow: 10am Gladiators v Pirates; 1.30pm Tornados v Phantoms.

Saturday: 10am Phantoms v Pirates; 1.30pm Gladiators v Tornados.

Sunday: 10am 3^rd v 4^th;  1.30pm Final.

Titans CEO Jacques Faul was whistling a happy tune at SuperSport Park yesterday after the success of the inaugural Global Softech Sixes held at the stadium over the weekend.

“We’re very happy, the Franchise Challenge was very competitive and the Africa Challenge was good too. We learnt a lot from the first event, we had fun too and we’re proud of this new tournament. We really got our brand and the stadium out there.

“It’s a massive hospitality opportunity so you don’t really expect the general public to come in their droves, but we were pleasantly surprised by how many people were there on Sunday. Compared to a one-day domestic cup event, the crowd was very good,” Faul told The Pretoria News yesterday.

The concept is now set to be taken to neighbouring countries, with two of the participants in the Africa Challenge, Namibia and Zimbabwe, eager to host the event.

“We will roll it out to Walvis Bay and Harare, their representatives were very excited by the tournament and they want to host something similar next year,” Faul said.

Although the format of the competition is set to change, Faul warned that the actual rules of the Sixes game are unlikely to be fiddled with.

“We’ll maybe go for six franchises and four African nations in two pools in the next event, and play it on Friday, Friday night, Saturday and Sunday.

“What we don’t want though is for the event to just be normal cricket. We want something else, which is why we bring the boundaries such a long way in and we have five overs with very small boundaries.

“We’re happy with the format of the games, it’s been trialled for years at the Hong Kong Sixes. People mustn’t look at this event with a traditional cricket perspective,” Faul said.

For eons, cricket has somewhat naively been associated with fair play, but the end of the Franchise Challenge, with the Titans deliberately trying to avoid getting someone out so as to avoid Dolphins captain Morne van Wyk, who had an incredible tournament, returning to the crease after his enforced retirement, showed that there are rules in Sixes that can be exploited in ways that some may consider to be “not cricket”.

But Faul said there was no need to change those rules.

“Different strategies will happen as the players play more of the format; the feedback from the players was very positive,” Faul said.

The South African team proved invincible in the Africa Challenge and Faul suggested they would not play in future events so as to level the playing fields. Logistically, it was also well nigh impossible to pick the national team from performances in the Franchise Challenge, leading to a player like Van Wyk being omitted.