Ken Borland

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.

Winning a series against India, not just because they are a country of half-a-billion women but also because they are one of cricket’s superpowers, especially on their home turf is a magnificent effort and South African batter Lara Goodall was quite right when she called it a “statement win” after the Proteas clinched a 3-1 series triumph with a game to spare with their seven-wicket win in Lucknow on Sunday.

To clinch victory, South Africa had to mount their highest ever successful run-chase – a daunting 267 was their target – and they did it style with eight balls to spare as the top four of Lizelle Lee (69), Laura Wolvaardt (53), Goodall (59*) and Mignon du Preez (61) all scored half-centuries.

The 24-year-old Goodall, who only returned to the Proteas team this year after being in the international wilderness following South Africa’s hammering on their last visit to India in October 2019, calmly steered them home in the company of veteran Marizanne Kapp (22*).

“It’s been nice to come here and make a statement because the last time we came to India we got clobbered a bit, so we had a point to prove. We knew it would not be easy, there was a lot of uncertainty, but we wanted to show that the batting unit has that belief and it was a massive chase against a world-class team. It showed we are a lot more mature in our game, especially the batting.

“It feels very good to be there at the end with Marizanne, to get us over the line after grafting so hard. We have a world-class opening partnership that we can always rely on with Lizelle and Laura, but we haven’t always backed them up. But the entire top four scoring fifties just shows all the talent and experience that is there. The batting really came to the party today,” Goodall said.

This was no mundane triumph and no-one would blame the Proteas for celebrating into Monday, especially since the fifth and final ODI is only on Wednesday.

“We’re definitely going to enjoy this one and we owe the win to the backing of the coaches and to ourselves for what happened last time we were here and we were down and out. Personally it put me out of the international game for a while, but I worked very hard in Lockdown. Two years ago I wasn’t sure how to play spin, what my options were.

“But having been a bit half-hearted about it, I looked at myself deeply and I knew I had to improve a lot if I wanted to have a regular place in this team. I want to keep my spot in the middle-order and it just required a mental shift. I’ve always had the shots and the ability, but there was some sort of disconnect whenever I had to go out into the middle,” Goodall admitted.