Ken Borland

Having just claimed their first title of the season in the RamSlam T20 Challenge, the smart money will be on the Nashua Cape Cobras to also mount a strong defence of their crown in the Sunfoil Series and the Western Cape side start their campaign today against the bizhub Highveld Lions at Newlands.

The Lions are already handily placed in the competition, just four points behind the leaders, the Chevrolet Knights, but coach Geoff Toyana has been a shopper for batsmen this week with Alviro Petersen, Quinton de Kock and Temba Bavuma all with the national side for the first Test against the West Indies at Centurion.

They will, however, welcome back Neil McKenzie and the experienced Jean Symes is also able to fill in, while the Lions will have a strong attack with Hardus Viljoen, Chris Morris and Lonwabo Tsotsobe joined by Kagsio Rabada, who was released by the national team while Bavuma inexplicably was not. Spinner Eddie Leie has also been in great form with the ball, so it all points to an intriguing contest against the powerhouse Cobras side, who have recalled Richard Levi to replace Stiaan van Zyl.

The Knights are hosting the Unlimited Titans in Bloemfontein and they too will want to take their T20 form, where they reached the final, into the four-day competition.

The Titans, by way of contrast, are looking to rebound from a disappointing T20 campaign, in which they finished last, and their well-balanced attack gives them hope.

David Wiese markets himself as a genuine all-rounder and his skills with the new ball, backed by the often scary pace of Marchant de Lange, the steadiness of Ethy Mbhalati and the exciting talent of Junior Dala, plus two spin options in Shaun von Berg and Roelof van der Merwe, means coach Rob Walter is comfortable that he has all the bases covered.

“There’s no substitute for pace and Junior, David, who also brings the quality of his skills, and Marchant all have that. Shaun von Berg also bowled beautifully in a couple of the T20 games,” Walter told The Citizen.

The Knights family was emotionally bruised by their disappointing defeat in the T20 final and coach Sarel Cilliers will also have to dig into his stores of replacement players as Rilee Rossouw, Dillon du Preez and Tumelo Bodibe are all unavailable due to injury.

The Sunfoil Dolphins will be out to arrest a mini-crisis after their poor run in the T20 Challenge as they host the Chevrolet Warriors in Pietermaritzburg.

It’s the Dolphins’ first game in the competition this season and they will want to make their mark. Coach Lance Klusener will be hoping David Miller hits top form again after scoring 364 runs in five innings last season, while Imran Tahir will be eager to rebound quickly from his dropping from the Test side.

The match is the first for the Warriors with new coach Malibongwe Maketa in charge, Piet Botha having resigned after a troubled season thus far.

Whatever people say about going to Benoni, Willowmoore Park is rapidly becoming a field of dreams for the Unlimited Titans players with Roelof van der Merwe and Rowan Richards adding to the list of phenomenal individual performances there in the Sunfoil Series victory over the Chevrolet Warriors over the weekend.

Van der Merwe turned his maiden first-class century into a double, scoring 205 not out as the Titans amassed 539 for six in their first innings. Left-arm paceman Richards then took five for 31 as the Titans dismissed the Warriors for the second time with just a dozen overs remaining in the match. His final spell was a phenomenal 5.4-3-2-5 and included a hat-trick to end the match.

It is only the fourth time that a double century and a hat-trick have been scored in the same first-class match in South Africa and the second time it has happened at Willowmoore Park. The other occasion was the famous match in 1948/49 when Denis Compton blazed a triple century for the English tourists in 181 minutes against North-Eastern Transvaal, with seamer Cliff Gladwin then taking a hat-trick.

Last season, Shaun von Berg blasted the fastest century – off 73 balls – in franchise four-day history for the Titans against the Cape Cobras in Benoni.

Van der Merwe has always been one of the hardest workers in the Titans team and the dramatic improvement in his batting – he was their leading run-scorer in last season’s Sunfoil Series and averaged 55.57 – has been the reward.

“It’s all about the way you train in the nets and it’s just mental really. My target is to face a hundred balls, it’s a simple thing, but often scoring a fifty isn’t enough to get you there,” Van der Merwe said of his improvement.

“The way the Titans’ set-up is now, Shaun von Berg is the number one spinner for four-day cricket and the only way I can be sure of playing is by being a batsman. I’ve become almost a part-time bowler if you like, but that’s how I stay in the side, through scoring runs and my bowling is an extra,” the left-arm spinner said.

The Titans batsmen have struggled for consistency in recent times and coach Rob Walter has often stressed the importance of scoring centuries. It was typical Bulldog Roelof for him to go and make that first hundred of the season a double!

“We have struggled over the past few seasons to make big scores, so it was a good start in Benoni. I was very stressed going to a hundred for the first time, I felt sure something was going to go wrong again in the 90s, but I was able to play with freedom after that,” Van der Merwe, whose previous highest score was 93 against the Highveld Lions in 2010, said.

The Titans have been waiting for Richards to find his best form after a long-term injury lay-off, and the 30-year-old hit his straps in spectacular fashion as he wrecked the Warriors’ brave effort to save the game.

“It’s my first hat-trick and it makes it really special that it won the game and gave me a five-for,” Richards said after his career-best figures in the Sunfoil Series.

“I knew it would be my last spell of the day, so I just pushed it and made sure I hit good areas. There had been a lot of effort before me by the other seamers, JP de Villiers and Ethy Mbhalati, that broke the long partnership between Colin Ingram and Ryan Bailey, and we just said that another wicket would bring more breakthroughs. We never gave up and I found my rhythm at the right time.”

The bizhub Highveld Lions and the Chevrolet Knights, the two winning teams from the first round, will meet from today in a Sunfoil Series match with the conditions in Potchefstroom promising to be much friendlier for the batsmen.

The formidable Lions pace quartet prospered at the Wanderers last weekend when they beat the Titans by 190 runs, but Temba Bavuma’s 84 was the highest score by their batsmen.

In Bloemfontein, the Knights beat the Warriors by 128 runs in an extraordinary game in which the home side recovered from 32 for eight to win.

Because of the batting-friendly conditions at Senwes Park in Potchefstroom, the Lions had lined up wrist-spinner Eddie Leie to come into the side but the plans were foiled when the 27-year-old sprained his groin in practice.

Left-arm spinner Aaron Phangiso, fresh from his exploits with the national side, will therefore be playing and should be a major attraction along with SA U19 star Kagiso Rabada, recently named in the Proteas’ T20 squad.

Lions coach Geoffrey Toyana speculated in the build-up to the season that Rabada would be spared having to bowl on flat pitches, but the decision has now been made to put more responsibility on the young man’s shoulders.

“We’re still managing Kagiso, at the moment he’s not bowling much between games, but he’ll definitely play. Bowling on flat pitches is part of the process of growing up and when he gets to international cricket, all the pitches will look like Potch! It’s quite important that he learns the skills to bowl on those sort of surfaces,” Toyana told The Citizen yesterday.

Rilee Rossouw, who the Knights are heavily reliant on to lead the batting, is not available as he has just become a father for the first time, while Pite van Biljon is also on the injured list. They have rested their hopes on two of three all-rounders added to the squad – Obus Pienaar, Patrick Botha or wicketkeeper Tumelo Bodibe.

It will probably be a different story in Benoni, where both the Unlimited Titans and Chevrolet Warriors will be looking to bounce back from the blows they took in the opening round on a Willowmoore Park pitch that is often difficult for batting.

Henry Davids has been named in the Titans squad, but it remains to be seen whether he will play, having withdrawn from the team last weekend due to his lack of four-day form.

It will probably be a shootout between him and Qaasim Adams for the number four batting spot, while spinner Roelof van der Merwe and seamer Cobus Pienaar are probably competing for the all-rounder’s spot.

The Warriors will be without Wayne Parnell, the left-arm fast bowler having injured his shoulder in Bloemfontein.

Warriors captain Colin Ingram has spoken of the need for his team to adapt quickly to what the vagaries of the pitch may throw up, but the visitors will be confident they have the bowlers – both pacemen and spinners – to put the struggling Titans batting line-up under more pressure.

Colin Ingram and Ryan Bailey were able to check the Unlimited Titans’ progress for three-and-a-half hours, but ultimately the Chevrolet Warriors were swept away by a Rowan Richards hat-trick as the home side won their Sunfoil Series match by 170 runs at Willowmoore Park in Benoni on Sunday.

The Warriors had begun the final day on 51 for two chasing an unlikely 414 for victory and survival was on their mind, especially after Jon-Jon Smuts was caught in the gully off JP de Villiers in the second over of the day.

Colin Ackermann batted for two hours in scoring 47 before being dismissed by medium-pacer Farhaan Behardien, leaving the Warriors on a shaky 111 for four with 83 overs still left on the final day.

But Ingram and Bailey dug in so well they might have been called mole-men. They added 113 in 56 overs for the fifth wicket; the left-handed Ingram compact and secure, but able to play some pleasing strokes when the opportunity presented itself, while burly Bailey seldom strayed from the crease as he prodded and deflected, an occasional well-timed punch down the ground being as far as he was willing to go in terms of strokeplay.

They survived together for 14 overs until lunch, taken on 151 for four, and then ploughed on until tea, which the Warriors reached on a far healthier 215 for four.

The Titans were heavily reliant on the second new ball when the final session began with Ingram on 87 and Bailey on 38, and it might not have been resignation on the home team’s faces but it was certainly concern when the experienced duo survived for another six overs after tea.

It was Ethy Mbhalati who made the crucial breakthrough, claiming a return catch from Bailey, whose stroke was a prod that would have been more effective if one was trying to scrape guano off the pitch rather than intercept a cricket ball.

It had nevertheless been an immense effort from Bailey, who faced 171 balls for his 40 runs and showed once again how valuable his experience is in this Warriors batting line-up.

Ingram would fall four overs later as he edged Richards low to Farhaan Behardien in the gully and the rest would go quickly as the left-arm paceman produced a top-class spell of swing bowling – five for two in 5.4 overs with three maidens – a phenomenal burst in which he moved the ball both ways.

Ingram was unfortunate not to achieve his second century of the match, falling for 93 off 226 balls in a little over five hours at the crease, a wonderful effort.

Simon Harmer and Athenkosi Dyili hung around for six overs before Richards produced a snorter which spat up from back of a length and Harmer (7) could only glove the ball to wicketkeeper Mangaliso Mosehle.

There were still a dozen overs left for the Titans to claim the last three wickets when Richards began the 103rd over, bowling from the Harpur Street End. But, having clearly rediscovered his rhythm, the 30-year-old proceeded to end the match in the most spectacular way possible.

The second ball of the over saw the left-handed Dyili (10) prodding at a delivery that swung away from him, edging a catch into the midriff of double-centurion Roelof van der Merwe at third slip.

Sisanda Magala was next up and he was bowled by a beauty that nipped away from the right-hander, squaring the batsman up and knocking over the off-bail.

Basheer Walters was the hat-trick victim, able only to prod at another away-swinger, sending an edge into the safe hands of Van der Merwe at third slip.

“It’s my first hat-trick and it makes it really special that it won the game and gave me a five-for,” hero Richards said after his career-best figures of five for 31 in the Sunfoil Series.

“I knew it would be my last spell of the day, so I just pushed it and made sure I hit good areas. There had been a lot of effort before me by the other seamers, JP and Ethy, that broke the long partnership, and we just said that another wicket would bring more breakthroughs. We never gave up and I found my rhythm at the right time.”

Captain Henry Davids was delighted with the way his team had bounced back from a poor performance and a 190-run hammering at the hands of the Highveld Lions last weekend.

“During our pre-season camp in Knysna, we spoke about winning games after tea on the last day and that’s what makes this the best format, it tests everything in your game. We hung in there, we stayed patient and we knew the new ball would make it tough for the batsmen.

“Things happen quickly on this pitch, wickets fall in clusters and the guys bowled brilliantly, especially that spell from Rowan. Plus there was that unbelievable double-hundred from Roelof that really set the team up in the first innings,” Davids said.