Ken Borland

The Cape Cobras confirmed themselves as the team to beat in the Momentum One-Day Cup when they hammered the defending champion Unlimited Titans by 113 runs at Willowmoore Park in Benoni on Friday night.

The Cobras had been sent in to bat and struggled along to 83 for two in 22 overs before lightning and then rain forced the players off the field for 75 minutes. The delay served as a major disruption for the Titans, who came back lacking intensity, bowled poorly and saw the Cobras amass 237 for five in the 42 overs now allotted to them.

As poorly as the Titans bowled on a pitch offering substantial assistance to the bowlers, their batting was even worse as they subsided to 133 all out and their biggest ever defeat at the hands of the Cobras.

In retrospect, it was also silly of them to choose eight specialist batsmen and only two fast bowlers in Junior Dala and Lungi Ngidi, with the Cobras’ pace quartet of Beuran Hendricks, Tshepo Moreki, Dane Paterson and Wayne Parnell showing up the opposition with the way they bowled.

Off-spinner Henry Davids produced a top-class spell up front for the Titans, bowling seven overs for 16 runs, and Ngidi and Dala were impressive with the new ball, each claiming a wicket.

Parnell (6) edged a cramped stroke into his own stumps when Ngidi gained extra bounce and nipped one back into the left-hander, while Andrew Puttick (22) was bowled by a tremendous delivery from Dala, beaten for pace as the ball jagged back to hit the top of off-stump.

It was hard going for the Cobras, but Omphile Ramela and Stiaan van Zyl had just raised a fifty partnership off 60 balls when the rain came.

Davids returned with the ball once play resumed and, in his second over back, he claimed the prized wicket of Van Zyl, lbw for 28 as the left-hander was deceived by the flight and missed a power-sweep. Davids finished with one for 24 in his nine overs and was one of the few Titans bowlers who could brag to the wife about his performance.

Ramela found an excellent partner in captain Justin Ontong and was content to go to his half-century in a measured 74 balls, before Dala took a superb return catch, diving forward, to dismiss him for 53.

The Cobras were 149 for four with just eight overs left in their curtailed innings, but that’s when the visitors would break the shackles thanks to Ontong and Dane Vilas.

Ramela’s dismissal would also mark the start of the final powerplay and 88 runs were bashed from those eight overs.

Ontong was particularly mean to medium-pacer Grant Thomson in the 40^th over, hitting him for two fours and two sixes, in alternating blows, as he raised the 200, the fifty partnership off just 32 deliveries with Vilas, and his own run-a-ball half-century.

Thomson eventually had Ontong stumped – thanks to brilliant work by wicketkeeper Mangaliso Mosehle standing up – for 65 off 53 balls to end the over, but it would not mean much respite as Vilas finished in style with a six and a four off Dala in the final over as he raced to 46 not out off just 23 deliveries, with three sixes.

The rain delay close to midway through the innings would mean the Duckworth/Lewis equation would adjust the target upwards and the Titans were left with 247 to win in 42 overs.

But left-arm quick Hendricks made huge inroads with the new ball, having Davids caught down the leg-side, thanks to extra bounce, for a four-ball duck and then having Theunis de Bruyn (14) also caught behind with a fine swinging delivery.

The introduction of Moreki in the 10^th over was one of those inspired changes that make captains very happy as the nippy 22-year-old bowled Mosehle for 14 with his second delivery.

Dean Elgar (8) and Graeme van Buuren, who was the only Titans batsman to impress, stroking five fours and making 40 off 36 balls, were both caught behind by Vilas off Moreki, giving the former Dolphins paceman three for 26 in seven impressive overs and career-best figures in the Momentum One-Day Cup.

And Hendricks would also claim a career-best as he removed Qaasim Adams (3), Heinrich Klaasen (4) and last man Ngidi (4) and finished with outstanding figures of five for 31, the third-best figures for the Cobras in the competition and best against the Titans, just edging ahead of Monde Zondeki’s five for 32 at Newlands in 2006/7.

Thomson was run out for 13 and off-spinner Dane Piedt chipped in with the wicket of Tabraiz Shamsi (13) as they made their second-lowest total ever against the Cobras.

The Titans are languishing in fifth place on the log, on 13 points after eight games, and they will be reliant on other results going their way, while beating the Dolphins and Highveld Lions in their last two games, if they are to make the playoffs.

The Cobras, with the way the ball talked for their bowlers and their batsmen posted an impressive total in a bonus point win, have no such worries.

http://www.citizen.co.za/979293/cobras-confirm-themselves-as-team-to-beat/

Nollis Marais was confirmed as the Bulls’ SuperRugby coach for the next four years over the weekend and he said he will continue with the enterprising new style of rugby he has introduced in the Currie Cup and which has taken the Blue Bulls to the brink of a home semi-final.

“Of course we will need to be more accurate in SuperRugby, but we’ll have more time to prepare than we did for the Currie Cup. We will change one or two things in the three months we have pre-season and there’s still a lot of improvement needed,” Marais said.

“It’s a huge surprise to be appointed because I only applied on the second-last day, but I’d like to thank my captain [Lappies Labuschagne] and the support of the fans and players because their backing is what got me appointed. I know there will be a lot of challenges and we have a lot to improve on for SuperRugby,” the 43-year-old said.

Bulls CEO Barend van Graan described Marais as “fearless” and a “straightshooter” who has “turned the tide at Loftus Versfeld”.

“He knows the players and understands them and they have adapted very well to his coaching style. The board and I have got a lot of faith in Nollis and that’s why we have given him a four-year contract. It gives him the opportunity to build,” Van Graan said.

Even though the Blue Bulls will go into the final round of league play in the Currie Cup with a firm hold on second place, four points ahead of Western Province, after their 48-27 win over the Eastern Province Kings at Loftus Versfeld, the match showed the improvement that is still needed by the young side if they are to be a force in Super Rugby.

The Kings went into half-time with a 20-17 lead having dominated the gain-line and been slick with ball-in-hand as they probed both the near and wide channels. The Bulls managed to up the intensity to produce an impressive second-half display, but the ability to play an 80-minute game still eludes them.

“The first half was a bit lacklustre, we made mistakes and they capitalised, and we only started to get momentum in the second half. The pattern needs to suit the players and we needed to play less expansively because we lost Deon Stegmann before the game and Jacques du Plessis had to move from lock to flank, when we wanted to play a quick game. We had to stick to playing the ball closer and not going wide and the best thing was the improvement in the driving maul. We put them under pressure with it in the second half and it paid off for us,” Marais said.

A new-look Titans batting line-up for the Momentum One-Day Cup will allow them to give wicketkeeper Mangaliso Mosehle more exposure with the bat, stand-in captain Henry Davids has confirmed.

Mosehle has almost always batted around the number seven position for the Titans, but scored just 99 runs at an average of 24.75 last season.

“Mangi will have a new role this season, he’s showing a bit more form already after not having a great season last year. He’s going to bat in the top three or four because he’s an explosive batsman and one of the sweetest hitters of the ball. I often stand in awe of him when I bat next to him in the nets because he’s a small guy but he hits the ball so hard.

“He hasn’t had the chance to really showcase that talent down the order, it’s difficult batting down there and being expected to finish the innings. If you don’t come off in two or three games, you start worrying about it and he’ll have more opportunity this season,” Davids said.

The Titans are the defending champions and, even though they will start the competition without half-a-dozen players on tour with the Proteas in India, Davids said they have several players to keep an eye on this season.

“Theunis de Bruyn is mentally very strong, he showed that by scoring a double-hundred on debut for SA A, he handles himself very well and he’s very mature. Heinrich Klaasen is also a very good cricketer and Aiden Markram is waiting in the wings as well.

“In terms of bowlers, you have to take wickets up front because all teams have great hitters in the middle-order and if you give them a good platform then they’ll really hurt you. Marchant de Lange is a quality strike bowler and Junior Dala did really well last season as well. Ethy Mbhalati is still hungry to do well and he came back very strong at the back end of last season. You need experienced bowlers and he’s been the most successful Titans bowler ever,” Davids pointed out.

The Titans get the competition and new season underway on Friday when they host the Warriors at SuperSport Park in Centurion and they will be eyeing a good start to the competition, unlike in the last two seasons when they have scraped into the knockout rounds with incredible winning runs.

“We’ve tended to start slow, but we want to hit the ground running this season and not have to win five-in-a-row like in previous campaigns. We know we can play under pressure, but I think we can expect a lot more from the side if we can play with freedom,” Davids said.

The wait to see which of the country’s major golf courses will host the 2015/16 South African Open is finally over with Glendower Golf Club in Edenvale confirmed as the hosts for the third successive time and sixth time overall.

At this stage, the 105^th SA Open will be held in the same calendar slot as the 2014/2015 event, from January 7-10, with Johannesburg’s other co-sanctioned Sunshine/European Tour event, the Joburg Open, taking place the following week (January 14-17), which will not only encourage overseas golfers to play in both tournaments but also cut the costs for the Sunshine Tour.

“There’s a need for back-to-back tournaments because it’s not fair on the European golfers to make them travel back and forth to South Africa. It also means we save money on costs, which is important as well,” Duncan Cruickshank, the marketing and communications director of the Sunshine Tour, told The Citizen.

There had been strong speculation that Humewood Golf Club in Port Elizabeth, which has hosted the SA Open on five previous occasions, would be the venue for this summer’s prestigious event but the financial muscle of Gauteng has perhaps won the day.

Even though hosting the SA Open is of enormous value in terms of worldwide television coverage – Cruickshank said the exposure gained for the tourism industry by the tournament in January was worth more than a billion rand – sponsors are still needed over and above the huge investment made by municipalities and local government.

It is believed that the Africa Open at East London Golf Club is in some doubt due to a lack of sponsors, but it would be very sad if the Eastern Cape – and the coastal region as a whole – did not host a single co-sanctioned event.

Cruickshank confirmed that the Alfred Dunhill Championship would kick off the Summer Tour at Leopard Creek in Malelane from November 26-29, with the Nedbank Golf Challenge following immediately afterwards at Sun City from December 3-6.

The SA Open and Joburg Open are then on successive weekends in January, with the Africa and Tshwane Opens scheduled to go back-to-back in early March.

It was also confirmed on Tuesday that the 2016 AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, the only tri-sanctioned tournament endorsed by the European, Sunshine and Asian Tours, will be held from May 12-15, 2016, at the Four Seasons Golf Club Mauritius at Anahita.