Ken Borland

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.

Kagiso Rabada has won accolades all over the world but he has not smiled more broadly as when the Imperial Lions beat the Dolphins by four wickets with an over to spare in the T20 Challenge final at Kingsmead, the fast bowler playing a pivotal role in the victory and another trophy for his franchise.

After the Dolphins won the toss and elected to bat on their home ground, Rabada played a leading role as the KZN side could only post 107 for seven in their 20 overs. Rabada, who gave a superb demonstration of all his wonderful skills, removed key batsman David Miller for two, beat Mangaliso Mosehle for pace and bowled him middle stump for 18 just when the wicketkeeper/batsman was threatening to revive the Dolphins innings, and finished with superb figures of three for 12 in four overs.

He was ably supported by left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin, who bowled a sweeping Sarel Erwee for a duck in the first over and finished with one for 19 in his four overs, and paceman Sisanda Magala who was outstanding again with two for 19.

Opener Grant Roelofsen scored 20 for the Dolphins and Khaya Zondo scored a determined 24, but Robbie Frylinck, who has had a fine all-round tournament, scored 30 not out off 26 balls to post a total that proved challenging for the Lions with all the pressure of a final and a Dolphins side who showed an admirable never-say-die attitude in the field.

The Lions also struggled with the bat with the Dolphins’ key bowler, Keshav Maharaj, also showing his class. The left-arm spinner took one for 22 in four overs, and troubled all of the batsmen, having Temba Bavuma dropped first ball by Khaya Zondo at slip, who was diving and just failed to take a tough chance.

Opner Reeza Hendricks, the leading run-scorer in the tournament, held the innings together with his run-a-ball 39 and his 36-run partnership with Bavuma (22) almost took the Lions to victory. Wiaan Mulder showed his abilities with the bat as he steered the Lions to victory with his 24 not out off 23 balls.

Apart from Maharaj, the Dolphins seamers – Ottneil Baartman (4-0-20-2), Robbie Frylinck (4-0-16-1) and Kerwin Mungroo (3-0-14-1) also showed great determination.

Kagiso Rabada has just one IPL team on his portfolio – the Delhi Capitals – but notwithstanding his loyalty to them, the fast bowler said on Thursday that the Proteas are his first priority and he will probably have to miss the first week or so of this year’s T20 extravaganza in India.

The Delhi side, which was originally known as the Delhi Daredevils before a name change ahead of the 2019 IPL, were runners-up in last year’s competition, with Rabada playing a key role as the leading wicket-taker in the competition. He has unsurprisingly been retained for this year’s edition, at a salary of $575 000.

But the Capitals have expressed some anxiety about his availability this year as fixture-starved South Africa are hosting a white-ball series against Pakistan from April 2-16. Although the dates for the IPL have not yet been officially confirmed, it is believed likely that there will be some overlap.

“In terms of the IPL, my country comes first. It looks like I might miss about a week of the IPL, but the Proteas are my priority. That being said, Delhi is my home in India. They’re the only team I’ve played for in the IPL and they have looked after me really well,” Rabada said on Thursday.

While Rabada has stayed with Delhi since 2017, other leading South Africans have moved around: Faf du Plessis has played for Chennai and Pune; Quinton de Kock has played for four different franchises as have Chris Morris and Dale Steyn.

CSA’s director of cricket Graeme Smith said earlier this week that no definite decision had been taken yet over when the Proteas would be released because they were still waiting for the IPL dates to be confirmed.

The 25-year-old Rabada is now with the Imperial Lions side in Durban preparing for the CSA T20 Challenge which starts on Friday with the Titans playing the Knights and the Dolphins taking on the Cape Cobras. The Lions, who won the CSA T20 Challenge the last time it was held in 2018/19, start their campaign on Saturday against the Warriors. The entire tournament is being held at Kingsmead.

The Lions certainly have the firepower to be considered one of the favourites with Rabada leading a bowling attack that includes fellow Proteas in pacemen Dwaine Pretorius, Beuran Hendricks, Wiaan Mulder and Lutho Sipamla and the left-arm spinners Bjorn Fortuin and Aaron Phangiso.

“We’re going to be up against some really good opposition, it’s going to be a stiff challenge with the majority of the Proteas back. We saw in the Mzansi Super League that we have some great cricketers in this country and that was a competition I really enjoyed. This is also going to be awesome for South African cricket and it’s going to be well-contended.

“There’s always a lot of banter in the Proteas squad because we are always representing our franchises, for instance I’ll chirp the Cape guys that the Cobras haven’t won anything for a while. It shows how much pride there is when the Proteas go back to the franchises and I think everyone will see that in this competition. I always put pressure on myself, but it’s not a given that I’m just going to roll the opposition,” Rabada said.