Ken Borland

Dane Piedt has the variations

New Proteas spinner Dane Piedt has excited many with his wicket-taking variations, to which 45 batsmen succumbed in the Sunfoil Series, but the Cape Cobras offie knows that international batsmen will feast on him if he tries too much with the ball.

Piedt is heading off to Sri Lanka on his first tour with the Proteas and there can scarcely be a more daunting place for a finger spinner, even one armed with doosras and carrom balls, to make his debut.

“It’s going to be really important to get into a spell. You can’t go for four or five runs an over in long-form cricket because then the captain can’t set fields. Once you’ve bowled 10 overs for 20 runs then you can start manipulating things, bowl variations and change the field,” Piedt said at the Centre of Excellence in Pretoria, where the Proteas were having a fitness camp.

According to his Cobras coach, Paul Adams, what makes Piedt so good is his ability to “just sit at one end and create pressure”.

“When a spinner is a match-winner and takes five-fors in the last innings of the game, that’s what you want to see. It’s great to not crumble under the pressure of being the one relied on to get those wickets, and Dane’s managed to pull off a couple of those performances this season,” Adams added.

While Piedt was a revelation for the Cobras, bowling them to the four-day title, he has been on the national selectors’ radar for a while, attending the national academy in 2011 and touring Australia with the Emerging South Africa squad in 2012 and playing for SA A last year.

“I’ve been given responsibility at the Cobras. Justin Ontong [the captain] always threw me the ball and said ‘bowl the team out’. He used me as a wicket-taker and not just in four-day cricket. It’s the role I was given from the start of the season.

“I had to take it to the next level because we were missing a couple of bowlers with Beuran Hendricks, Rory Kleinveldt, Robin Peterson and Vernon Philander all with the national squad, I had to use my skills in the fourth innings and win games,” Piedt said.

The 24-year-old’s success is not that surprising considering how quickly he whips the ball through, while still obtaining turn and bounce, and how economical he generally is, conceding just 2.50 runs per over in the Sunfoil Series last season. He was also the leading wicket-taker in the competition and there’s no doubt he has a strong claim to a Test spot as back-up to leg-spinner Imran Tahir.

The SACS product said he was sorry to see England off-spinner Graeme Swann, one of his role-models, retire from the game this year.

“I loved watching Graeme Swann, but unfortunately he’s retired so we won’t be seeing him again.”

Piedt has also incorporated aspects of Pakistani Saqlain Mushtaq, Australian Tim May and even local hero Adams into his game.

“It’s mostly all the orthodox off-spinners, but Saqlain had the ability to spin the ball the other way, which was exciting, and obviously Paul, coming from Cape Town, was a hero. It was always a big thing when he played for South Africa for us in the coloured community,” Piedt said.

It seems that Cape Town might have produced another spinner to take the international stage by storm. There’s no doubt Piedt is an exciting prospect and an opportunity to shine in Sri Lanka is one he’s going to grab with both hands.

The Cape Cobras officially sealed the four-day domestic series title on Saturday with Australian-like ruthlessness and efficiency, closing in on an innings victory over the Highveld Lions at the Wanderers in the process.

The Cobras, having amassed a daunting 544, dismissed the Lions for just 201 in their first innings and then reduced them to 124 for five in their follow-on.

According to the rules that govern the allocation of bonus points, the Cobras have earned a whopping 9.34 points, putting them out of reach at the top of the log even in the unlikely event of the second-placed Knights beating the Dolphins in Bloemfontein.

The Lions had begun their first innings in solid fashion, resuming on Saturday morning on 111 for one, with Rassie van der Dussen unbeaten on 68.

Opening batsman Van der Dussen had added just six to his overnight score when paceman Dane Paterson trapped him lbw, but the Lions had little inkling of the terrible collapse that would follow as Temba Bavuma and Devon Conway took them to 165 for two.

The drama started in off-spinner Dane Piedt’s fifth over of the day when he had Conway smartly caught at slip by Justin Kemp for 16 and then successfully asked for an lbw verdict two balls later as he trapped Bavuma on the crease on 51.

Cobras captain Justin Ontong could not have asked for much more of his seamers as Shaheen Khan (2-32), Paterson (3-47) and Kemp (3-30) then wrapped up the rest of the innings as the Lions lost their lost eight wickets for just 36 runs.

The Lions, trailing by 343, were asked to follow on and were in early trouble as captain Stephen Cook was caught behind off Kemp for six in the second over.

Van der Dussen and Bavuma once again stood in the Cobras’ way as they added 56 for the second wicket, but Piedt then had Bavuma caught close-in for 34 and added the wickets of Conway (7) and Shaylen Pillay (0) as he took his tally of victims for the competition to 43 in eight matches.

Van der Dussen had once again donned the mantle of chief obstacle to the Cobras as he ended the day on 55 not out.

In Bloemfontein, the Dolphins seemed to be easing to victory when they reduced the Knights to 329 for nine in reply to their massive first-innings total of 564 for seven declared.

Opener Reeza Hendricks had scored 103 to keep shouting in the ears of the national selectors, but wrist-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi then took three wickets to leave the Knights facing a follow-on.

But a magnificent unbeaten last-wicket stand of 107 between Malusi Siboto (51*) and Corne Dry (68*) then took the Knights well past the follow-on mark and to within 128 runs of the Dolphins total.

Gihahn Cloete (83) and Gerhardt Abrahams (51) had also scored half-centuries to frustrate the Dolphins in their quest to overtake the Knights in second place on the log.

Half-centuries by Ernest Kemm (62), Qaasim Adams (89) and Grant Thomson (53) allowed the Titans to take control of their match against the Warriors at Centurion.

That trio of batsmen carried the Titans to 275 for six declared in the second innings, which meant the Warriors were chasing a formidable 395 for victory, with batting out 109 overs to save the match a more likely target.

David Wiese has bowled Michael Price for 13, but otherwise the Warriors have started well, reaching 46 for one in the nine overs they batted before bad light stopped play with four overs left in the day.

The Titans’ dominance in this game has meant they have overtaken both the Warriors and Lions on the log, climbing into fourth place.

The Warriors made 234 in their first innings, only earning 2.68 batting points, after starting the third day on 165 for eight.

Debutant Somila Seyibokwe made a defiant 40, while Basheer Walters took the attack to the Titans bowlers in slamming 38 off 28 balls.

Wiese, with four for 52 in 21 overs, and Shaun von Berg, the leg-spinner, with three for 36 in 11 overs, were the most successful Titans bowlers.

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Jacques Kallis is not about to sign for the Unlimited Titans and weekend rumours that the cancellation of his long-term relationship with the Cape Cobras is imminent have been described as “very premature speculation” by Titans chief executive Jacques Faul.

Weekend reports suggested that the Titans could well be enjoying the services of Kallis next season, but Faul told The Pretoria News that these reports were based on nothing more than just a suggestion made in connection with a new commercial product the franchise are launching.

“One of the commercial sponsorship products we are looking at is a thing called The Art of Fast Bowling and, in our discussions with people like Kallis and Dale Steyn and their representatives, it was mentioned that it might provide the opportunity for big-name players to play here.

“But we haven’t even got sponsors confirmed yet so it’s very premature speculation,” Faul said.

As a nationally-contracted player, Kallis is allowed to nominate which franchise he wants to represent and the Cape still holds the most obvious attractions for him. The great all-rounder has lived his whole life there, his best friends live there and the Cobras have qualified for the Champions League T20 while the Titans have not.

The Art of Fast Bowling will be a series of masterclasses and speaking breakfasts hosted by some of the biggest names in South African cricket, which the Titans will market and sell.

The Unlimited Titans suffered their fourth defeat in seven Sunfoil Series matches at the weekend when the Cape Cobras thumped them by 211 runs in Paarl, but coach Rob Walter’s options continue to shrink as injuries only add to his difficulties.

Of the 20 players contracted to the Titans, five are away with the national squad and another five are injured or otherwise unavailable. It leaves Walter in the awkward position of either fielding out-of-form players or replacing them with unknown quantities who are totally untested at franchise level.

“Obviously we’d like to try and make a few changes, but how do you facilitate that when you’re missing five players with injury? It’s not ideal for young guys to get their first opportunity in this sort of situation, but it would allow us to see what we’ve got in terms of talent waiting in the wings,” Walter told The Pretoria News yesterday.

The batting remains the Titans’ biggest worry after they lost seven wickets for 23 runs to be bowled out for 198 in the first innings in Paarl, before making 232 in the second innings. But two of the changes that Walter might have wanted to make have been scuppered by injury.

Cobus Pienaar has already averaged 32.80 in three Sunfoil Series matches this season and bats in the top-order, but has now suffered a thumb injury that is almost certain to rule him out of contention for this weekend’s match against the Dolphins in Benoni.

Wicketkeeper/batsman Mangaliso Mosehle averaged 40.80 in the Momentum One-Day Cup, but has not come close to reproducing that form in four-day cricket, where he averages just 14.60.

There would appear to be a ready-made replacement in young Heinrich Klaasen, who has averaged 52 in three-day cricket for Northerns this season, but the Tukkies wicketkeeper/batsman now has a broken finger.

Both Pienaar and Klaasen would have been in contention for selection this week, but now Walter will probably have to stick with struggling batsmen like Henry Davids (17.40), Francois le Clus (16.27) and Mosehle.

To be fair to the Titans, their defeat in Paarl was largely down to an amazing spell of bowling by international paceman Rory Kleinveldt, whose spell of five for four in four overs on the third morning utterly destroyed them. At 186 for four, replying to 429, they would have felt the match was on an even footing, but Kleinveldt changed all that.

“Rory bowled exceptionally well with the second new ball and we had young guys coming up against the sort of quality they hadn’t seen before. He was at his best and our batsmen were caught unawares, they weren’t up to the mark,” Walter said.

The bowlers, however, have continued to impress with their determination and, given the 10 days of rain that has swamped Gauteng, they could have a greentop to enjoy at Willowmoore Park this week.

“They have kept improving and it’s such a young attack that we need to be realistic in our expectations of them. They kept plugging away, although their consistency is not always there, but you expect that with youngsters,” Walter said.

Before Kleinveldt so dramatically altered the course of the game in Paarl, Graeme van Buuren had held firm for 208 balls in scoring 85, and Walter said his confidence as well as that of the other batsmen would be boosted.

“Graeme batted exceptionally well and it was nice to see him step up again in a different format. But having a batsman get past 200 balls is a step in the right direction, our time at the crease has improved. Our batsmen need to make big hundreds or, as a collective unit, we need substantial contributions,” Walter said.