Ken Borland

Right now, no matter how much medical expertise or finance they throw at the injury, it’s not working when it comes to Dean Elgar’s adductor tear and the opening batsman will once again be missing when the Northerns Titans host the KZN Dolphins at SuperSport Park from Friday in the second round of the domestic four-day competition.

Elgar, who has not played since the T20 tournament at the end of September, told The Citizen on Thursday that he is hopeful of being fit for the third round of fixtures which start on November 18. But that will leave the Test captain with just two matches before the first Test against India starts on December 17.

His absence is a continued blow for a Titans side that mounted a fine comeback in their opening match against the Eastern Province Warriors, but simply did not have enough top-order runs in either innings.

It is a problem not shared by KZN, who piled on the runs last weekend at Newlands thanks to an unbeaten double century by Khaya Zondo and a hundred by Jason Smith, while there were also useful contributions from Keegan Petersen and Bryce Parsons. Sarel Erwee and Marques Ackerman missed out last weekend, but they are both quality batsmen.

The Dolphins will be without new-ball bowler Ottneil Baartman, but in-form paceman Daryn Dupavillon is still there and Eathan Bosch is also in their squad. It all adds up to Northerns having to work as hard and as collectively as ants if they are to not lose a second straight home game.

The Central Gauteng Lions know how much assistance their Wanderers home pitch loans them, which they used to great effect in beating North-West last weekend by an innings, but now they have to travel down to St George’s Park to take on Eastern Province Warriors.

Both Lutho Sipamla and Sisanda Magala return to their place of birth in Port Elizabeth, while the Warriors will unleash the exciting pace trio of Glenton Stuurman, Mthiwekhaya Nabe and Marco Jansen in an exciting battle of attacks.

The two teams were the only outright winners from the first weekend of fixtures, so should one of them gain victory again this weekend, it will give them a useful head-start.

Lions coach Wandile Gwavu is optimistic his team will adapt well given their previous record in Gqeberha.

“It’s always been really good games against the Warriors. We have managed to get a positive result at St George’s in 2018 and last season.

“So we are definitely going there with a bit of confidence behind our backs and looking forward to it,” Gwavu said.

The other games starting on Friday are the big Western Cape derby between Boland and Western Province in Paarl, and North-West host the Free State Knights in Potchefstroom.

Dwaine Pretorius has announced himself as a new death-bowling star for the Proteas and he knows that his role will once again be vital against Bangladesh in their crucial T20 World Cup match in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.

In a low-scoring tournament, a huge premium is being placed on the last few overs when teams go for broke and the size of the boost they give themselves is often the difference between winning and losing.

So far in the three matches South Africa have played, Pretorius has taken six wickets for 60 runs in 8.4 overs, the majority of those bowled at the death. The all-rounder has executed a clever plan of bowling full and wide of off-stump to great effect.

“So far in this competition it looks like teams are taking care in the powerplay because if you lose two wickets up front you’re in trouble,” Pretorius said on Monday.

“I think Bangladesh will also try to take it deep like Sri Lanka did and then have a go at the death. It’s up to us to upset that and ensure it doesn’t go according to plan for them.

“There are dangers at the death in being too predictable, so I try and vary my pace and length, although the line stays the same. It’s not an ego-battle at the death, you just want to be as effective as possible.

“I want to bowl to a batsman’s Plan B or C rather than their Plan A. It doesn’t look too fancy but I’m happy to do the ugly job and I’ve worked on a lot of different variations of slower balls,” Pretorius said.

The 32-year-old said the great fighting spirit the Proteas have shown thus far is down to their becoming like a family, and they have promised to keep fighting to the end.

“It’s actually astonished me how this team has stuck together no matter what controversies at CSA or wherever. We are really forming a family, and that’s one of the positives of Covid bubbles – you are forced to spend a lot of time together.

“We will not stop fighting until the last ball and you have seen that in our three games so far. It’s a promise we make to each other every day. There’s an awesome spirit in the camp and a win like the one over Sri Lanka just does even more for that.

“But we are keeping our heads down, we understand that there are two very important games left. We must win tomorrow or the England game won’t matter.

“It’s knockout cricket now and you can see the intensity is there in the squad. We will leave everything on the field against Bangladesh, play at the highest intensity,” Pretorius promised.

SUN CITY, North-West (15 October) – The third round of the Blue Label Challenge at Gary Player Country Club once again showed golf’s wonderful ability to surprise us as qualifier Dylan Mostert soared to the top of the leaderboard with a four-under-par round of 68.

Mostert will go into Saturday’s final round with a one-point lead in the modified Stableford scoring system over the experienced Lyle Rowe, with first-round leader Ockie Strydom another point back.

Mostert began the penultimate round in seventh place, five points off Ruan Korb’s lead. Making the cut was an achievement alone for the 23-year-old because he has not managed that in his three previous Sunshine Tour events this year.

Hence his need to prequalify for this R1.5 million tournament.

The State Mines golfer birdied the par-three third hole, but his real charge up the leaderboard came around the turn when he picked up three birdies in four holes.

Two more birdies on the 14^th and 15^th holes sealed a marvellous round for Mostert.

Rowe was on fire on the back nine, where he collected six of his eight points and he is on track to contend for his first title since the Zimbabwe Open in 2016.

Strydom continued to be on a rollercoaster ride around one of South Africa’s most prestigious courses. His only points on the front nine were a minus-one for a bogey on the fourth, and on the back nine he mixed three birdies with two dropped shots.

Rhys Enoch and Jaco Ahlers both collected five points on Friday and finished on 21 points overall, in a tie for fourth place.

Scores – https://sunshinetour.com/tournament-information/?tourn=BLCH&season=221S&report=tmentry~season=221S~alphaorder~#/home

After their morale-boosting win over the Ospreys, the Sharks will once again be looking to the terrific game-management skills shown by halfbacks Ruan Pienaar and Boeta Chamberlain as they try to back up that triumph with victory over Cardiff in their United Rugby Championship match at the Arms Park on Saturday night.

Giving up territory and penalties were the two main problems for the Sharks in their opening two losses to Munster and Glasgow Warriors, but coach Sean Everitt is hopeful that those two departments have now been sorted out for their meeting with the Welshmen.

“We had struggled with our game-management, which meant we didn’t have any territory, and we also gave away a number of penalties,” Everitt said.

“But then it was totally different against Ospreys, we gave away very few penalties and that’s against a team that plays for penalties and territory. Ruan and Boeta were outstanding with the way they controlled the game.

“Boeta is filling a big hole in terms of our depth at flyhalf, we’ve been blooding him, giving him confidence, and I was very pleased with how he dominated the show. He has a big contribution to make.

“We left a few opportunities on the field though, the bonus point was there for the taking, so we have worked hard on our accuracy and execution. There was definitely still room for improvement,” Everitt said.

The breakdown is sure to be a key area again and Cardiff, who utterly dominated that department in the first half of their loss against the Bulls, but were then outwrestled there in the second half, derive much of their momentum from that phase.

Openside flank Dylan Richardson, whose talents were this week confirmed to be rehomed to Scotland rugby, will spearhead the Sharks’ efforts in that regard.

Like the Bulls, the Sharks have been in contact with former South African Test referee Tappe Henning, who is now the Match Official Commissioner in Scotland, to help them with the different interpretations being used at the breakdown up north.

“It’s been great to have Tappe with us, he helped the Bulls and he has certainly added value to us. We’ve been penalised quite heavily at the breakdown, but we do go hard at the ball. But also our attacking breakdown has been a struggle,” Everitt said. The Sharks will be hoping the turnaround in fortunes at that crucial phase of the game will be as dramatic as it was for the Bulls.