Ken Borland

The DP World Lions Ladies team has had a month off from HollywoodBets ProSeries action, but it’s not as if they have been enjoying tubs of ice-cream and refreshing swimming pools during this festive period: the focus has been squarely on preparing for this weekend’s crucial visit to Durban to take on the Dolphins.

It’s a vital weekend for the DP World Lions with their hosts enjoying an unbeaten season in both the Pro50 and T20 competitions. World Sports Betting Western Province are also unbeaten in the shortest format, so victory for #ThePrideOfJozi in Sunday’s T20 match will keep them in touch with the leaders.

In the 50-over competition, victory for the DP World Lions will bring them within one win of the HollywoodBets Dolphins, with a game in hand.

“INTENT” is the message coach Shaun Pretorius has been thumping home in the DP World Lions’ build-up to this crunch weekend.

“After playing Western Province, we had a week off and then we did some nice team-building and played some golf. But we started three weeks ago with our prep for the visit to Kingsmead, just to make sure the players keep their loads up. It’s been good to have a bit of a break, but if there’s any sort of holiday mindset then we won’t achieve success,” Pretorius says.

“We need to be switched on all the time, that’s when things tend to go your way. Against the unbeaten Dolphins, it’s going to be all about intent and I keep reminding the ladies of that and the way we finished last season. We didn’t beat the Dolphins in the 50-over match, but in the T20 we really took them on and the results were phenomenal.

“So we need the same mindset this weekend and we can’t allow their bowlers to settle. As #ThePrideOfJozi, we are happy to take on that challenge. We need to take away their ability to dictate terms by manipulating the field, we must determine the pace of the game,” Pretorius says.

Shorn of the batting abilities of Tazmin Brits, Karabo Meso, Diara Ramlakan and Sinalo Jafta (who are all away with the Proteas or the SA U19 team in India), there is obviously some pressure on the experienced duo of Kirstie Thomson and Sunette Viljoen-Louw to lead the charge of the DP World Lions batting line-up.

So far the contributions of the top-order have been dwarfed by the middle and lower-order, but Pretorius is hoping the run of good starts not being converted comes to an end this weekend.

“Once our top-order comes through then we will really be a major force to be reckoned with. We’re just missing those valuable partnerships up front at the moment.

“Kirstie and Sunette are obviously vital for us. It’s been really good to see Sunette take responsibility in the middle-order and she is the leading run-scorer in the Pro50. Sunette just wants to embrace every moment that’s left in her career, and that’s why, after we signed Tazmin Brits, we wanted to keep her in the squad. We asked her to move to the middle-order and she has worked really hard on her skills there,” Pretorius says.

The absence of Proteas pace bowler Tumi Sekhukhune and SA U19 all-rounder Fay Cowling has been offset by the availability of Ayabonga Khaka, who continues to perform impressively in white-ball cricket for the national team.

Cricket South Africa announced on Tuesday the big news that both festive season Tests this season will be played on the Highveld, but what their press release left undisclosed was the reason for the New Years Test being shifted from Cape Town for the first time in more than a century.

Newlands has been the host every time South Africa has played a New Years Test at home since January 1, 1914, when England clinched their 5-match series with a 91-run win in the third Test, at the Old Wanderers.

But this Christmas, due to Covid-19 and the need to play in a biobubble, Sri Lanka will play the Boxing Day Test against the Proteas at SuperSport Park in Centurion starting on December 26, with the New Years Test beginning on December 3 at the new Wanderers Stadium.

The costs of setting up a biobubble for just one game in Cape Town were deemed to be too much, with Sri Lanka and the Proteas able to stay in the same place for their two Tests over the festive season, which makes financial sense, especially with no spectators expected to be allowed to attend. England are paying for a substantial portion of the biobubble for their white-ball series against South Africa in a month’s time, and they insisted on staying in Cape Town.

“It’s great for our brand and for our sponsors, so it’s a really great thing to be the host from that point of view, but we are sad that we won’t see any fans here at the Wanderers. We are thankful and excited that Cricket South Africa have chosen us as hosts. It certainly wasn’t something we planned for at the start of the year.

“But with the Boxing Day Test happening at Centurion, it means the players can stay and travel from the same place, plus Cape Town will have the England series. If even a reduced number of fans are given the go-ahead to attend then we will be ready to go. We’ve geared ourselves to be ready for whenever fans can return and all safety measures are already in place,” Jono Leaf-Wright, the CEO of the Central Gauteng Lions, told The Citizen on Tuesday.

While only the Proteas fixtures up to that second Test against Sri Lanka were confirmed on Tuesday, that is certainly not the sum total of their summer. CSA revealed that Australia and Pakistan would also feature during the summer.

Australia will arrive for three Tests in February/March, which will undoubtedly be the pinnacle of the season, while a Pakistan tour comprising three ODIs and three T20s will end the summer.

South Africa are also scheduled to tour Pakistan in January for the first time since 2007, with CSA saying a delegation leaves for the subcontinental country at the weekend to do a security assessment.

Fixtures

England tour – Friday, 27 November (18h00):1^st T20I Newlands, Cape Town; Sunday, 29 November (14h30):2^nd T20I Boland Park, Paarl; Tuesday, 1 December (18h00): 3^rd T20I Newlands, Cape Town; Friday, 4 December (13h00): 1^st ODI Newlands, Cape Town; Sunday, 6 December (10h00): 2^nd ODI Boland Park, Paarl; Wednesday, 9 December (13h00): 3^rd ODI Newlands, Cape Town.

Sri Lanka Tour – Saturday, 26-30 December (10h00): 1^st Test SuperSport Park, Centurion; Sunday, 3-7 January (10h00):2^nd Test Imperial Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg.