Ken Borland

Both the Unlimited Titans and the Dolphins will be looking to eat up the points differential between themselves and the log-leading bizhub Highveld Lions, but the losers of their Sunfoil Series match starting at SuperSport Park in Centurion today will almost certainly be out of the running for the title.

The Lions, who play the Chevrolet Knights in Bloemfontein, lead the competition with 96.78 points, with the Dolphins second on 79.54 and the Titans close behind on 77.56 with three rounds remaining.

Titans coach Rob Walter wants his team to gobble up all their chances, something they didn’t do in their previous match, a crucial 170-run defeat at the hands of the Nashua Cape Cobras in Paarl.

“We had them in the first innings but then we weren’t clinical enough at the end to close out the innings. We also batted very well at the start before falling apart, so we need to be mentally stronger and make sure the opposition has to work hard for anything they get,” Walter, who has Marchant de Lange fit again, told The Citizen yesterday.

The Dolphins have pacemen Robbie Frylinck and Craig Alexander fit again, but coach Lance Klusener said they would probably not be assimilated into the team just yet, because he’s looking for more consistency from a side that knocked over the defending champion Cobras by eight wickets at Newlands last weekend.

“We need more consistency, we’ve had some good individual days, but if you can put two good days in a row then you generally win. But we’ve managed to fight our way through to here and we still have a shout,” Klusener said.

The Lions suffered their only defeat in this season’s competition when the Knights beat them by 143 runs in Potchefstroom in October, after leading by 101 runs on first innings but then collapsing to 137 all out to the spin of Werner Coetsee.

“We’ve played some decent cricket, but we have to keep winning, every game is a big game,” Lions coach Geoff Toyana said.

Alviro Petersen is taking a short break to attend a family wedding, Dominic Hendricks returning to take his place, while all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius is back from injury.

The Knights have briefly hit the right notes in the Sunfoil Series, winning their first two games in convincing fashion but failing to add to that.

“There are a couple of critical things we need to get right again. We need to score big runs when the opportunity presents itself: We’ve had 22 scores of more than 30 in the last three games but no centuries. And we need to take our opportunities in the field because we’ve bowled with control,” coach Sarel Cilliers said.

The match between the Cobras and the Chevrolet Warriors at Newlands is all about restoring pride for the home side, who are bottom of the log.

A dangerous Toyota Cheetahs side are standing in the way of the Cell C Sharks starting their new era on a winning note when the two neighbouring franchises start their Vodacom SuperRugby campaigns at Kings Park on Saturday.

New Sharks coach Gary Gold has been preaching pragmatism ahead of the match, particularly since the Cheetahs are highly adept at punishing mistakes and he doesn’t want his players getting ahead of themselves in their efforts to play more entertaining rugby.

“The danger comes with those expectations and I don’t want the players believing that it will be easy, especially since the Cheetahs have been a bit of a nemesis for the Sharks. The way they play – they’re not conservative – means they are hard to manage.

“If we’re not on top of our game then we’ll get beaten. We need to give them respect and play properly. They’re a good team, with mobile forwards, experienced halfbacks and plenty of danger at the back. They are very capable of punishing mistakes so we need to play with some pragmatism, it’s going to be a really tough game,” Gold warned.

It seems all the talk of playing running rugby and scoring tries will have to be put aside for the time being, the intense humidity at this time of year in Durban making the ball difficult to handle, with the Sharks looking to use their obvious strength in the tight five to lay the platform.

“We need the tight five to step up and get us ascendancy in the set-pieces. That’s critical for us when conditions are going to make it hard to move the ball around,” Gold confirmed to The Citizen on Friday.

The draining effects of the sapping humidity also counts against a free-flowing game, but the Cheetahs are the sort of side that will be waiting to pounce on the slightest of chances to counter-attack.

There is the ball-stealing threat of Coenie Oosthuizen, the sniping runs of Sarel Pretorius and the trickery of Willie le Roux for the Sharks to worry about, while the Cheetahs have made up for the loss of Johan Goosen at flyhalf by selecting the experienced former Stormers fullback Joe Pietersen.

Teams

Sharks: 15-SP Marais, 14-S’bura Sithole, 13-Waylon Murray, 12-Heimar Williams, 11-Lwazi Mvovo, 10-Pat Lambie, 9-Cobus Reinach, 8-Tera Mtembu, 7-Renaldo Bothma, 6-Marcell Coetzee, 5-Pieter-Steph du Toit, 4-Mouritz Botha, 3-Jannie du Plessis, 2-Bismarck du Plessis, 1-Tendai Mtawarira. Replacements – 16-Kyle Cooper, 17-Dale Chadwick, 18-Matt Stevens, 19-Marco Wentzel, 20-Jean Deysel, 21-Conrad Hoffmann, 22-Fred Zeilinga, 23-Odwa Ndungane.

Cheetahs: 15-Willie le Roux, 14-Clayton Blommetjies, 13-Francois Venter, 12-Michael van der Spuy, 11-Raymond Rhule, 10-Joe Pietersen, 9-Sarel Pretorius, 8-Willie Britz, 7-Teboho Mohoje, 6-Jean Cook, 5-Francois Uys, 4-Lood de Jager, 3-Coenie Oosthuizen, 2-Torsten van Jaarsveld, 1-Danie Minnie. Replacements – 16-Stephan Coetzee, 17- BG Uys, 18-Maks van Dyk, 19-Carl Wegner, 20-Boom Prinsloo, 21-Tian Meyer, 22-Willie du Plessis, 23-Cornal Hendricks.

A new putting grip but a return to the old driver and caddy is starting to pay rich dividends for Branden Grace as he roared into the lead in the first round of the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek on Thursday with a magnificent 10-under-par 62.

Grace breezed past fellow South African Jake Roos, who shot a superb seven-under-par 65 in the morning, to lead the European Tour co-sanctioned event by three strokes, with a pair of Englishmen, rookie Matt Ford and Sun City champion Danny Willett, lurking on six-under-par.

Grace’s last triumph came in the 2012 Alfred Dunhill Links at St Andrew’s and his world ranking has plummeted to 117, but he did finish 31^st in last season’s Race to Dubai. Nevertheless, the 26-year-old is determined to recapture the glories of 2012 and has made the perfect start to his 2015 European Tour campaign.

“I’ve been playing well for the last month, I’m in a really good state of mind, I’ve gone back to my 2012 driver and I changed to a claw-grip on the greens three months ago, so that’s just getting better. Plus it was obviously a mistake in 2013 to part ways with Zack [Rasego, his caddy], but I’ve learnt from that, we’ve had a good chat and that was the end of it. When he pulls me off a shot, I trust him,” Grace said after his faultless round.

The back nine, with its three par-fives, is traditionally the place to cash in at Leopard Creek and Grace collected six birdies, but he was also brilliant on the front nine, birdieing the first, third, sixth and seventh holes.

“It’s one of those courses where you can get going and I didn’t really make any mistakes. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t have a look at a bogey in my round, but it’s nice to get the ball-striking going and make a few putts. It was good shot after good shot, I like this course, it suits my game,” a delighted Grace said.

Willett was also never in the market for bogey as he cruised to his 66 and he will look to challenge Grace when he tees off early on the second day.

Roos, playing his first event with a fully-fledged European Tour card, also had a fine day with a dream start as he started on the par-four 10^th and promptly holed his second from 163 metres with a five-iron for eagle.

“The first hole, when I holed out with my second, was just the ice-breaker I needed. The five-iron came out perfectly, it looked good all the way but I couldn’t see because of the slope of the green. One guy put his hand up at the green and I just started laughing and took it from there,” Roos said after his fabulous round.

“I felt good about the day, I was comfortable, swinging nicely and I had some great birdie putts on the back nine, where there are more birdie opportunities. The front nine is quite tough, especially the opening holes. Six is the only really short one and I was able to take advantage there, and then I had a nice putt on the last from 15-20 feet. The ninth is playing long and I had to hit a six-iron in, a bit into the wind. But I was rolling the putts very nicely today.”

There are, however, prices to pay on this highly-rated course if golfers are off-line, as Charl Schwartzel discovered in another up-and-down round that featured four bogeys and seven birdies for a three-under 69. Another of the favourites, Louis Oosthuizen, is also on three-under.

It’s been the saddest of weeks for the cricketing world with the tragic passing of Phil Hughes in what can only be described as the freakiest of accidents dominating all discussions.

So many batsmen are hit on the head these days (I’m of the school of thought that says helmets encourage them to take their eye off the ball), but Hughes had the awful misfortune of being struck on the side of the neck, just below his helmet’s grille, flush on the vertebral artery, which split and caused the fatal brain haemorrhage.

South Africans have also been mourning the 25-year-old Australian, not least of all because he greatly impressed everyone on these shores with his grit and unorthodox talent as he averaged 53 against the Proteas in five Tests, scoring two centuries and two half-centuries.

The national team has, of course, just returned from Australia, where their 4-1 ODI series hammering caused much soul-searching and anguish amongst their fans, before being overshadowed by the real tragedy that unfolded in Sydney.

Whatever AB de Villiers so brashly said upon his return home about being the better side and South Africa’s World Cup plans being on track, serious questions have been raised about the Proteas’ ability to seriously contend at the global showpiece tournament starting in 11 weeks’ time.

Most worryingly, there is no further ODI cricket scheduled for them before they have to announce their final 15-man squad for the World Cup on January 7. So the five-match series against the West Indies will not provide the selectors with the opportunity to find someone who can bale them out of their current problems in terms of balance and form, because it starts on January 16. Neither is there any franchise 50-over cricket before then.

The squad that plays against the West Indies will be the World Cup squad and those 15 players will have dress rehearsals on five days in which they have to regain form and convince their fans that they are the strong contenders they perceive themselves to be.

South Africa’s most pressing need would seem to be to fill the number seven position with someone who can genuinely contribute with bat and ball. Ryan McLaren, with his mediocre bowling and his weakness against the short ball when batting, has done little lately to suggest he could be a match-winner in that vital position. Sadly, the schedule has dictated that the selectors are not going to be able to see what David Wiese can do.

I would back the Titans all-rounder because he brings power-hitting and a proven ability at the death, as well as the sort of bowling skills the South African attack desperately needs to master on what should be good batting pitches in Australasia.

In terms of cover, the 15-man squad will need to include two extra pace bowlers – perhaps one containing and one more attacking – an extra batsman who can bowl a bit and either an extra spinner or a top-order batsman.

This means Kyle Abbott must surely have secured his ticket, while I would choose Lonwabo Tsotsobe, in great form since returning from injury, ahead of Wayne Parnell. This would also reduce the pressure on the selectors in terms of Black African representation; although Aaron Phangiso deserves to go to the World Cup, his ill-timed injury and the need for top-order batting cover could count against him.

The selection of both Rilee Rossouw and Farhaan Behardien would facilitate cover for both the top three and the middle-order, with Behardien able to fulfil the crucial role of a sixth bowler that was vital in JP Duminy’s absence.

The presence of a genuine all-rounder like Wiese at seven would enable the Proteas to avoid the problem of either having to go into games a batsman or a bowler short, but the other issue they need to solve is not one of personnel but one of skills.

The bowling in the death overs was generally poor and the failure to consistently execute yorkers, slower-ball bouncers and changes of pace means the South Africans lack the weapons the other top teams enjoy.

My World Cup squad: Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, David Miller, David Wiese, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Imran Tahir, Kyle Abbott, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Farhaan Behardien, Rilee Rossouw.