Ken Borland

It’s going to be a bumpy road to the Momentum One-Day Cup playoff for the Dolphins, Lions and Titans, who are all in action on Friday night as the competition enters a critical stage with World Cup and SA A call-ups playing havoc with team selection for the franchises.

The Nashua Cape Cobras must rate themselves as being virtually assured of automatic entry to the final as they enjoy a nine-point lead at the top of the log with three matches to play.

Last season’s joint champions have won five of their seven matches, including an excellent five-wicket win over the bizhub Highveld Lions last week at the Wanderers, when they were missing a large proportion of their first-choice side.

But the fortunes of the three teams below them in the standings – the Dolphins (16pts), Lions (15pts) and Titans (13pts) – have fluctuated wildly and one of the franchises needs to get a solid run going in order to cement themselves into second place.

Lions coach Geoff Toyana will be hoping that it will be his team, that has been boosted by the return of several key players, that will take control of their destiny with victory over the Chevrolet Knights at the Wanderers on Friday, while Titans coach Rob Walter will be aiming for similar success as they take on the Cobras in Cape Town in a match-up that is a repeat of last season’s washed out final.

The fact that SA A play their next limited-overs match against the England Lions in Potchefstroom on Saturday means that Toyana is able to use star bowlers like Eddie Leie and Kagiso Rabada, while Hardus Viljoen is also fit again to further boost their attack and experienced campaigners Alviro Petersen and Thami Tsolekile also come back into the line-up.

Toyana said on Thursday that his team’s chances of possibly moving into second place will all come down to their ability to focus on their own skills and getting the execution of those right.

The Knights come to Johannesburg with their hopes of making the playoff all but gone after just one win in seven games, and they will be without key batsman Reeza Hendricks.

Toyana is not going to write them off, however.

“The Knights are a very dangerous team and very competitive in 50-over cricket. They can still get to 20 points so it’s a crunch game for us. If we don’t win then we’re not going to go far in this competition, so it’s important we do well and keep our destiny in our own hands,” Toyana toldThe Citizen on Thursday.

The Unlimited Titans travel to Newlands fresh from a morale-boosting win over the Knights in Kimberley, but are going to have to find replacements for key players like Marchant de Lange, Theunis de Bruyn and David Wiese, who are all with the SA A side.

Albie Morkel is set to make a return to domestic action and the Titans are going to have to decide, depending on pitch conditions, whether to play a second frontline spinner in Tabraiz Shamsi or another seamer in Ethy Mbhalati, while Graeme van Buuren (slow left-arm) and Grant Thomson (medium-pace) are both batting all-rounders competing for a single place.

The Titans will be hoping for more of the same from openers Jacques Rudolph and Henry Davids, who put on 77 for the first wicket in 14.3 overs against the Knights.

The Cobras have more players unavailable than most, but they have been able to make do thanks to the excellent depth they enjoy down in the Western Cape.

Openers Richard Levi and Andrew Puttick have been making bucket-loads of runs, while this season has also seen Sybrand Engelbrecht make strong progress.

Justin Kemp, the old warhorse, can still cart the best of bowlers around the park, while Robin Peterson is another experienced, dangerous campaigner for the Titans to be wary of.

The Sunfoil Dolphins travel to Port Elizabeth to face a Chevrolet Warriors side that has been boosted by the return of Rusty Theron from a knee injury and the availability of Simon Harmer.

Both sides have been in danger of having their 50-over skills decomposing due to lack of use as neither of them have played in the Momentum One-Day Cup since the end of October, but while the Dolphins still have the title to aim for, the Warriors can realistically only build for next season having won just one of their five games thus far.

Against the strengthened Warriors attack, the Dolphins will be relying heavily on three hugely experienced batsmen – Morne van Wyk, Daryn Smit, who had his 31st birthday on Wednesday, and Vaughn van Jaarsveld, who turns 30 on Monday.

http://citizen.co.za/317374/bumpy-road-momentum-one-day-cup-playoff/

While the Proteas are in Sri Lanka, South Africa’s next tier of internationals – the SA A side – will be heading off to Australia soon and coach Vincent Barnes says one of his most important tasks will be to mentally prepare the up-and-coming players for a country in which character assassination seems as much of a goal as taking wickets or scoring runs.

The SA A squad play their first match in a triangular series with the Australian and Indian A sides on July 20 and are busy preparing for a tough tour at the CSA Centre of Excellence in Pretoria. Barnes will be able to take fully-fledged internationals such as captain Justin Ontong, Marchant de Lange, Beuran Hendricks, Rory Kleinveldt, Heino Kuhn, Farhaan Behardien, Aaron Phangiso and Vaughn van Jaarsveld in his party, but there are numerous younger players, several of whom have never been to Australia before.

“The tour is designed to give our fringe players top-quality opposition and it’s a fantastic opportunity to play in Australia even though it’s winter. There are four recent Proteas [Hendricks, Phangiso, Kleinveldt & Behardien], but it’s a nice blend with a lot of senior players and quite a few young debutants.

“I’m doing a lot of mental work with them because I want us to go across there with presence, our body language is important. The biggest challenge in Australia is mentally and quite a few of the guys are on their first tour there. They’re going to have to deal with those mental pressures and learn how to overcome them,” Barnes told The Pretoria News on Wednesday.

Warriors opening batsman David White and Highveld Lions pace bowler Kagiso Rabada are two of the rookies in the squad, but they are both excited by the learning opportunities they will have in Australia.

“It’s a great honour to be chosen for the A side, I feel very privileged and I’m very excited. I want to learn as much as I can so I can build on my game for the Warriors, after I put in some nice performances for them in four-day cricket last season. Obviously the goal is to play Test cricket for the Proteas, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

“I have huge respect for the guys I’m playing with, there are some great cricketers and I’m going to learn as much as possible from them. Especially Justin Ontong, because he’s been around the block and has a lot of information to share,” White said.

Rabada was shining for the SA U19 Junior World Cup-winning side at the start of the year and his selection in both the four-day and limited-overs squads completes a whirlwind six months for the St Stithians product.

“Everything has happened so quickly, I went straight into the franchise team from the U19s and now I’m playing for SA A. I hope to learn from it and become a better cricketer. If I just play my best then the other things will take care of themselves, but my main goal is to play for the Proteas and long-term to be one of the best fast bowlers in the world,” Rabada said.

Five members of last season’s SA A squad – Kyle Abbott, Stiaan van Zyl, Dean Elgar, Hendricks and Phangiso will be involved in the Proteas’ tour of Sri Lanka and Barnes is excited by the possibilities that lie ahead for this year’s intake.

“Having so many young players has been refreshing and they’ve brought a lot of freshness and energy to the squad,” Barnes said.

And let’s not forget that next year’s World Cup will be held in Australia and history suggests a player or two from this A squad could well be involved with the full national team by then. While the wintry conditions in the sub-tropical far north will be different to those experienced at the height of the 2014/15 summer, it will do them the world of good to acclimatise to the abrasive Australian way of playing the game and all the other off-field quirks over there.

SA A squads

Four-day squad: Justin Ontong, Temba Bavuma, Marchant de Lange, Simon Harmer, Beuran Hendricks, Reeza Hendricks, Rory Kleinveldt, Heino Kuhn, Eddie Leie, Mangaliso Mosehle, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Hardus Viljoen, David White, Khaya Zondo.

Limited-overs squad: Justin Ontong, Farhaan Behardien, Cody Chetty, Marchant de Lange, Simon Harmer, Beuran Hendricks, Reeza Hendricks, Rory Kleinveldt, Heino Kuhn, Mangaliso Mosehle, Aaron Phangiso, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Mthokozisi Shezi, Vaughn van Jaarsveld.

Itinerary: July 20 v Australia National Performance Squad (Northline); July 22 v India A (Gardens Oval); July 24 v Australia A (Northline); July 26 v India A (Gardens Oval); July 29 v Australia A (Marrara); July 31 v Australia National Performance Squad (Gardens Oval); August 2 1v2, 3v4 (Northern Territory); August 7-10 v Australia A (Tony Ireland Stadium); August 14-17 v Australia A (Tony Ireland Stadium).

Off-spinner Simon Harmer claimed the best-ever figures for SA A - 8-87 - to clinch the series against Australia A

The development of the country’s second tier of top cricketers was shown by the way they improved in winter conditions that were much more suited to the Indian tourists.

Off-spinner Simon Harmer claimed the best innings figures for SA A to bowl them to a series-clinching victory over Australia A in Rustenburg, while left-arm swing bowler Beuran Hendricks produced the best ever match analysis as they beat India A in Pretoria to level that series.

SA A failed to make the final of the limited-overs triangular series against the two touring sides, but it took a record-breaking innings of 248 by Shikhar Dhawan to keep the hosts out of the finale, in which the Indians cruised to victory over Australia A by 50 runs.

The 50-over matches were all played at the L.C. de Villiers Oval at the University of Pretoria, which failed to offer any assistance to the bowlers and SA A coach Vincent Barnes said his players were going to have to learn how to play in such sub-continental conditions if they wished to play at the highest level.

“It was a harsh lesson for our bowlers, they had to work exceptionally hard. I can keep telling them that this is what Test cricket is like, but they have to actually experience playing on these decks. At domestic level, you don’t see reverse-swing and spin doesn’t play a major role.

“But in these conditions, seamers have to revert to other skills and reverse-swing plays a massive part. It helps that Australia and India sent two very strong sides as we tried to get as close as possible to Test conditions. It was a great measuring tool and, as a selector, I have a good idea where everybody is,” Barnes said.

Dean Elgar scored 268 to kick-start a prolific series for the left-hander, with Rilee Rossouw and Thami Tsolekile also scoring centuries against the Australians, while Vaughn van Jaarsveld and Reeza Hendricks managed to reach three figures in the limited-overs matches.

v Australia A @ L.C. de Villiers Oval, Pretoria

A determined Elgar equalled New Zealander Mathew Sinclair’s world record score for A internationals as he batted with tremendous application and concentration to give the national selectors a convincing display of his abilities. The left-hander shared a thoroughly dominating stand of 267 with Tsolekile, who made his best first-class score and joined Adam Gilchrist, Mike Hussey, Damian Martyn and Sir Garfield Sobers as the only players with three shares in sixth-wicket partnerships of over 250 in first-class cricket.

Warner had joined Elgar in making a point to his national selectors on the first day as, after being suspended from the Ashes tour and sent to Africa after trying to punch England batsman Joe Root in a pub, the left-hander hammered his way back into the Test team and shared a partnership of 204 in 38 overs with Maxwell, before being dismissed with what became the last ball of the first day. Warner did rather blot his copybook, however, on the final day as he and Tsolekile came together in an angry exchange.

v Australia A @Olympia Park, Rustenburg

Left-armer Hendricks snared the bulk of the wickets as the South African pacemen took advantage of swing-friendly conditions on the opening morning. The in-form Elgar and a composed Rossouw, who mixed watchfulness with aggression superbly, then overcame a pitch on which batsmen never really felt in to further batter the tourists on the second day.

Off-spinner Harmer then took control on a turning pitch to register the best ever figures for SA A. The 21-year-old Maddinson was the only Australian batsmen to bat with any authority in the match.

Triangular ODI series

6/8 Australia A bt SA A by three wickets

An opening victory for the home side looked a done deal after a fine opening stand between Hendricks and Rossouw of 87 in 15.3 overs had been converted into a formidable total by Ontong’s clean strokeplay, and a ferocious start to the Australia A reply had been weathered. But Shaun Marsh batted through the innings and, with Coulter-Nile playing a dramatic counter-attacking innings, the momentum was totally reversed by the tourists.

8/8 Australia A bt India A by seven runs

A phenomenal innings by Maxwell, who had never made a List A century before, and a top-class display of death bowling by Coulter-Nile clinched a thrilling victory for the Australians. Maxwell transformed an innings in disarray as six wickets had fallen for 32 runs and a devastating final assault saw him score his last 95 runs off just 32 balls, hitting Kaul for three successive sixes in the final over.

A solid Indian reply saw them needing just 23 from the last four overs with six wickets in hand, but a double-wicket maiden by Coulter-Nile in the penultimate over, after he had conceded just two runs in the 47^th over, snatched a dramatic victory.

9/8 India A bt SA A by 18 runs

A great effort with the bat by Rossouw, Elgar and Van Jaarsveld was not enough to save SA A from a poor bowling display after they had sent India A in first following morning rain that delayed the start of play, and then returned to end the contest with the hosts struggling against the visiting spinners.

10/8 SA A bt Australia A by 19 runs

Theron did an excellent all-round job in winning the match almost single-handedly, scoring 47 off 25 balls while in the company of last man Hendricks to lift a flagging innings. With Australia A needing less than four-an-over, Theron was then at the centre of a collapse that saw them crash from 160 for two to 183 for eight, Finch’s century not being enough to complete victory for the visitors.

11/8 Australia A bt India A by 25 runs

Australia A booked a place in the final thanks to another inspired effort by Maxwell, who shared a partnership of 139 in 16 overs with Shaun Marsh. His younger brother Mitchell and Coulter-Nile then ensured 54 runs were plundered in the last five overs. India A were in position needing 136 off 18 overs, with seven wickets in hand, but Hazlewood claimed two wickets in the 37^th over and then removed the dangerous Rayudu in the 43^rd to tip the balance Australia’s way.

12/8 India A bt SA A by 39 runs

A freakish innings by Dhawan set up a thrilling match which was reminiscent of South Africa’s memorable victory in the “438-game” against Australia in 2006.

Dhawan made the second highest score ever recorded in a List A game, joining Sehwag and Tendulkar as the only Indians to score a limited-overs double century. He survived a chance on 154, but it was still one of the greatest innings seen on African soil.

Top-class centuries by Hendricks and Van Jaarsveld gave SA A hope as they kept the required run-rate to less than 10 for 31 overs, but a burst of wickets from Pandey ended the brave challenge as India A earned a place in the final.

14/8 India A bt Australia A by 50 runs

Australia A succumbed with barely a whimper after performing well with the ball. The India A innings looked set for bigger things when Dhawan, playing another fine innings, and Karthik were in full flow, but it rather faded away with Hazlewood and Coulter-Nile once again announcing their talents in the death overs.

But the Australian reply was stymied by a combination of Shami’s two early strikes and the wiles of the spinners.

SA A v India A, Rustenburg

SA A failed to meet the challenge of playing in conditions that were as sub-continental as could probably be reproduced in South Africa, India A’s attack impressing as they sealed victory by bowling the hosts out for the second time in two days to seal victory with just eight overs remaining.

The India A batsmen were willing to be patient against the new ball on the first two mornings, with Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina playing out six successive maidens to start the second day. The SA A batsmen, except for Duminy, were unable to replicate that sort of application and in both innings their top-order was dismissed quickly. Pandey was particularly impressive as he hit the deck hard and often used cutters to take advantage of the dry pitch.

SA A v India A, Pretoria 4-dayer

Beuran Hendricks’ excellent control of swing – in particular of the reverse variety – brought him match figures of 11 for 63, the best ever for SA A. He was able to bring the ball into the batsman as well as angle it away and he was well-supported by off-spinner Simon Harmer, who took seven wickets in the match.

SA A had made a disastrous start to the match as unfocused strokeplay saw them crash to 97 for six. But Parnell and Harmer then batted together for the second half of the first day and for more than an hour on the second, before Birch added more misery for the Indian bowlers at the end of the innings.

The post-tea session on the second day brought a dramatic Indian collapse from 95 for one to 145 for six at stumps and they were sent in again for four overs before stumps on the third day, losing Vijay to a Hendricks yorker as they chased 307 in 94 overs.

Pujara was run out off the first ball of the last day, heralding a dramatic collapse to 18 for five, before Rahane and Saha batted through to tea. But Hendricks then returned and swung a delivery back through Rahane’s defences to knock over his leg stump. The end came quickly thereafter for the tourists.