Ken Borland

The domestic cricket season starts on Friday in Kimberley and the CSA Provincial T20 Knockout Competition should highlight some of the exciting young batting talent coming through, starting with the Western Province duo of Johnny Bird and Tony de Zorzi and the Central Gauteng Lions trio of Josh Richards, Mitchell van Buuren and Shane Dadswell.

The Lions and Western Province are the two First Division sides in the pool so they will be the favourites to advance, but hosts Northern Cape, who have a couple of thrilling strikers of their own in Beyers Swanepoel and Evan Jones, and South-Western Districts, led by Jean du Plessis and Hanno Kotze, should not be discounted.

The 23-year-old Dadswell, who is something of a Pukke legend for his big-hitting exploits for them, has joined the Wanderers fold along with two other young North-West products in Ruan Haasbroek and Louren Steenkamp. The Lions are coached by Wandile Gwavu, who steered the franchise team to last season’s T20 title in February and, even though only two players return from that final, he will not want to bend the knee to anybody this early in the season.

Ryan Rickelton is one of the returnees and he has been named as Central Gauteng’s captain for the T20 competition, being joined by Sisanda Magala, who will be the Lions’ key bowler.

Whereas the Lions franchise used to slowly strangle teams in T20 cricket with their brilliant spin duo of Bjorn Fortuin and Aaron Phangiso, that option is not available to Gwavu now and he will be looking to pace to blow opposition batsmen away. Magala has Lutho Sipamla to share the new ball with and the likes of left-arm quick Carmi le Toux, Tladi Bokako and Aya Myoli are in the squad for Kimberley.

Former Knights offie Tshepo Ntuli, who was born and raised in Kimberley, is the chief spinner in the squad and Gwavu could be looking to the likes of Haasbroek and Dadswell for some part-time overs.

The Lions and Western Province meet in the season opener on Friday, followed by Northern Cape versus South-Western Districts. The Pool A games conclude on Sunday with the top two teams going through to the quarterfinals.

Western Province have endured a most average season and, unless they beat the Sharks in Durban on Saturday, they will miss out on the Currie Cup semi-finals for only the second time since 2008. And Sharks coach Sean Everitt foresees a desperate visiting team that will play more rugby than usual.

The problem with that is that Durbanites are expecting to see squalls of rain sweeping in from the sea and the Sharks have made using their kicking game to force teams deep into their own territory something of an art form.

“Western Province are a proud franchise and they won’t be happy with where they are on the log. They will see the opportunity to get five points, I’m sure they will come to Kings Park and give it their all and play more rugby than usual. Our kicking game will certainly help us because the conditions Durban is expecting will bring a lot of rain and gale-force winds.

“So we are very happy to have Curwin Bosch back and we will have another look at him at fullback, where he played very well against Griquas when we played them at Kings Park. He’s certainly dying to play again and that big boot of his will definitely be very useful for us,” Everitt said this week.

The Sharks lost that match to Griquas because they failed to grab their scoring opportunities and the Northern Cape team have since moved to third on the log with their thumping of Western Province last weekend, giving them wins home and away against the team that has won the Currie Cup more than any other (34 times).

The match between Griquas and the Pumas in Kimberley on Saturday afternoon will be a feast of celebration for the winners as they will be assured of a semi-final place. The losers of this 2.30pm clash will have to wait until after dinner on Saturday night to see if Western Province can upstage the Sharks and sneak past them into the knockout round.

In between those games, the Bulls host the Free State Cheetahs at Loftus Versfeld. Having devoured the Pumas pack in the set-pieces, which was crucial as the Bulls were not dominant in any other area, Jake White’s young pack will be eager to stamp their mark again and get the win that seals first place on the final log.

“I do not think the Pumas have been dominated at set-piece before this season like they were by the Bulls, which was a great boost for us. We generally have quite a young pack, only Arno Botha is older than 25, and their performances have given us massive confidence. Credit to forwards coach Russell Winter, who has done a fantastic job getting that pack going.

“Mornay Smith at tighthead is one of the most improved players we’ve had and I’m very happy to have Jacques du Plessis covering lock and flank. Ruan Combrinck is not a bad replacement either, he’s a Springbok who has played in Super Rugby finals. Although he has not played for a while, I’ve seen enough in the small time he’s been with us to know he has rugby in him,” White said on Friday.

The domestic cricket season will come to an end next week with the Dolphins hosting the Titans in the 4-Day Domestic Series final at Kingsmead following the KwaZulu-Natal side’s seven-wicket win over the Warriors at St George’s Park on Friday.

The Warriors themselves had an outside chance of topping Pool B and qualifying for the final, but their defeat and the comfortable draw secured by the Titans against the Imperial Lions at the Wanderers on Friday means the Pretoria team go through to the showpiece game, which will be played over five days.

The Dolphins were chasing just 112 to beat the Warriors and, although Aya Gqamane picked up a couple of cheap wickets, opener Senuran Muthusamy dug in with 57 not out to see them home.

The Dolphins are certainly the form team at the moment, having overtaken the highflying Knights in spectacular fashion over the last two rounds.

The Knights’ form away from home is a concern though, with the Cape Cobras beating them by a record innings and 215 runs at Newlands on Friday to blast them out of top spot in Pool A.

The visitors, trailing by 342 runs on first innings after Pieter Malan’s 264 and a century by Kyle Verreynne, began the final day with little hope on 106 for seven.

Left-arm spinner George Linde, who is rapidly becoming one of the most dangerous all-round cricketers in the land, took the last three wickets to fall to finish with exceptional figures of seven for 29 in 21.2 overs, the Knights being bundled out for just 127. Farhaan Behardien scored a gutsy 48 not out.

Thanks to Wiaan Mulder’s accomplished 56 not out, the Imperial Lions were able to set the Titans a target of 313 in 89 overs, a required run-rate of 3.51. Openers Dean Elgar (68) and Aiden Markram (64) gave them a great start as they added 125 in 36.5 overs.

But left-arm seamer Beuran Hendricks produced a superb delivery to have Markram caught behind, and Elgar then holed out against spinner Bjorn Fortuin shortly before the tea break. With the Titans ending the session on 149 for two after 48 overs, and the clouds starting to build up, both teams agreed there was little point in going into a third session and hands were shaken on the draw.

Titans paceman Lizaad Williams celebrated his selection for the Proteas squad for the first time with another fine performance, taking four for 74 in 18 overs.

The ability of Ruan Nortje to tear around the rugby field in indefatigable fashion in the heat of summer has been one of the features of the season, but the Bulls lock said on Thursday he was grateful for the Covid-enforced break his team had to take, even though he is well aware and sad for the heartbreak the virus has caused for many.

The Bulls will certainly be relying on Nortje to bring unrelenting work-rate in their Currie Cup semi-final against the Lions in Pretoria next weekend and he is confident he will be firing on all cylinders. The 22-year-old has shown himself to be a player in the same mould as Springbok lock Franco Mostert, who was a key part of the Lions side that dominated local rugby between 2016 and 2018.

“The heat at this time of year definitely gets the better of you sometimes, but thanks to Covid – although I am sad for how much suffering it has caused – I had a really good off time over Christmas with the family, which helped a lot. Now I can prepare well and get my energy right for the semi-finals. I’ve been very blessed with natural fitness, or something like that.

“I’m not sure why I play the way I do, it’s just instinct, it’s how I grew up – just play as hard as possible even though I’m not the biggest guy. When I get on the field, I just want to go. I’m trying to add a bit more meat to my body and our conditioning coach says I mustn’t run as much on my own so I don’t lose weight. But I still run every now and then when I’m off,” Nortje said on Thursday.

And Nortje knows that the focus of the Lions challenge will be up front – in the scrums and lineouts. The Bulls struggled in those departments when they played their Gauteng neighbours last week and were trailing 9-0 after the first quarter. But the pack then stood up and led the SuperRugby Unlocked champions to a 22-15 win and ensured first place on the log and home advantage for the semi-final and final (if they qualify).

“The Lions have a very good scrum and lineout and they will definitely target us in those facets again. So it’s for us to put in the hard work over the next week to counter them. It’s the knockout rounds now so it’s a new game and we’ve put the previous game behind us. The Lions are a very good side, they can beat anyone on their day, so we’ve put a bit more focus on our systems and processes.

“To make the Currie Cup final would mean the world to me. As a little boy, we didn’t have DsTV, so we would go to my grandfather for prime time and watch the Bulls and every final. It was such a special time and I would kick the water bottle around in the garden. I guess I was imagining myself more as a flyhalf back then, kicking the winning penalty goal,” the two-metre, 113kg Wonderboom dynamo said.