Ken Borland

The Central Gauteng Lions will have the services of the second new ball first thing on the final morning as they mount a last-ditch effort to win their CSA 4-Day Series match against the North-West Dragons at the Wanderers on Thursday.

Having posted a formidable 504 for five declared, but also having lost the majority of the second day’s play to a wet outfield and bad light, the Lions had reduced North-West to 342 for seven at stumps on Wednesday’s third day.

The visitors are still 13 runs shy of preventing the Lions from enforcing the follow-on, which will surely be their most likely route to victory. Even a lead of 125 will force the home side to bat for some time on the final day, into the afternoon and therefore leaving them with too few overs remaining to bowl out the Dragons on a good batting pitch.

The Lions strived nobly with the ball and at 226 for six, they seemed poised to dismiss North-West well short of the follow-on mark of 355.

But there was some determined, pugnacious cricket by the visitors’ lower-order and Migael Pretorius, with a defiant 68 not out, and Duan Jansen, who is in similarly stubborn mood on 30 not out and has already played some fantastic drives down the ground, will resume battle on the final morning.

They have added a crucial 68 for the eighth wicket, and before that, Pretorius put on 48 for the seventh wicket with Senuran Muthusamy, who scored a solid 45 in two-and-a-half hours at the crease.

Having suffered some traumatic damage with the ball, the Dragons actually enjoyed a solid start to their first innings, reaching 111 for one as Grant Mokoena made 43 and Raynard van Tonder stroked a commanding 87 off 114 balls.

But Tshepo Moreki found the edges of both Mokoena and Wihan Lubbe’s bats as they tried to leave, bowling the former and having the latter smartly taken by Wiaan Mulder at second slip.

Duanne Olivier claimed the key wicket of Van Tonder, caught behind as the ball just nipped away from him, and spinner Bjorn Fortuin then made inroads.

Ruan de Swardt and Mika-eel Prince, skying a slog-sweep, were both caught-and-bowled by Fortuin, who then trapped Muthusamy lbw as he missed a sweep.

Before North-West came out to bat, Zubayr Hamza and Mulder were both able to complete their centuries for the Lions.

Given the frustrations of the second day, it seemed ages ago that Hamza came to the crease, but he was quickly into three figures for the first time since moving to Central Gauteng, having started the day on 96 with the Lions on 385 for three.

The stylish Proteas player scored an authoritative 118 off 169 deliveries, building superbly on the first-day top-order contributions of Josh Richards (82), Dominic Hendricks (64) and Ryan Rickelton (58).

Mulder finished with 121 from 131 balls, a classy innings from someone who has shown a great thirst for runs already this season.

He and Hamza enjoyed a quick thrash-about for runs on Wednesday morning, aided by Wandile Makwetu’s punishing 36 not out off just 20 balls, which included three sixes, before the declaration came an hour before lunch.

Some may argue they should have declared before they did, but then the Dragons would have already have saved the follow-on and the Lions would be needing a miracle to win.

As it stands, they need three wickets for less than 13 runs, with a brand new ball, on the final morning to give them hope.

Lifelong Bulls fans will have seen some brilliant backlines in their lives, but not many will be more exciting than the unit coach Jake White announced on Thursday for their United Rugby Championship match against Connacht at Loftus Versfeld on Friday.

Five Springboks, four of them who are part of the national team’s current plans, have been named. New sensations Kurt-Lee Arendse (fullback) and Canan Moodie (right wing) will have a slightly more experienced international in Sbu Nkosi for company in a class back three.

Johan Goosen, who was eased back into action last weekend at fullback, returns as the starting flyhalf for the first time since injuring his knee 11 months ago, and there will be great interest in how he performs given how other experienced No.10s in the country seem to be falling by the wayside.

And then to round it all off, there is the veteran, evergreen Cornal Hendricks at outside centre. And two other backline Springboks on the bench in scrumhalf Embrose Papier and utility back Lionel Mapoe.

Even White called it “an incredible backline we’ve been able to put together”.

“But it’s their first time together as a combination and I look forward to seeing how quick it is before they click. They are all very talented.

“They all like to keep ball in hand, and in training we see so many line-breaks and so many supporting lines. So hopefully we can keep ball-in-hand on Friday evening.

“But rugby is also about clever kicking and they are all very clever rugby players. A guy like Canan can play 100 Tests for South Africa and people are now seeing what I see in him.

“And then you have a guy like David Kriel at inside centre who sums up what we’re about at the Bulls – you need to be adaptable. He brings incredible work ethic and unbelievable skills and rugby intelligence,” White said.

Although there has been a gorge between Connacht’s score and that of their opponents in their first two URC matches – Ulster beating them 36-10 and the Stormers 38-15 – White says they are a team that stays in the game.

“Connacht never go away and in both matches, with 20 minutes left the result could have gone either team’s way. So we must not think that it’s going to just happen for us.

“They beat us 34-7 last season, which was the biggest score against us. So we know we must play well otherwise we’ll get another hiding.

“They are very direct and well-coached, a typical Irish team that fights till the end. They’re good with the ball and defensively. They were not easy games for either the Stormers or Ulster.

“Connacht play a style of rugby that is very difficult to contain. Against the Stormers they were still in the game until they lost Bundee Aki to a red card, they were just one score away,” White said.

Bulls team: Kurt-Lee Arendse; Canan Moodie; Cornal Hendricks; David Kriel; Sbu Nkosi; Johan Goosen; Zak Burger; Elrigh Louw; Marco van Staden; Marcel Coetzee; Ruan Nortje; Walt Steenkamp; Francois Klopper; Johan Grobbelaar; Gerhard Steenekamp. Substitutes – Jan-Hendrik Wessels; Simphiwe Matanzima; Mornay Smith; Janko Swanepoel; Reinhardt Ludwig; Embrose Papier; Chris Smith; Lionel Mapoe.

Kickoff: 6.30pm.

Captain Phepsi Buthelezi suffered a head knock against Griquas and will miss the Sharks’ Currie Cup game against Western Province in Cape Town on Wednesday, but coach Sean Everitt is confident the eighthman will have recovered in time to join the squad in Johannesburg as they go into lockdown ahead of their match against the British and Irish Lions on July 7 at Ellis Park.

The focus of the Sharks is facing a testing time because they have the crucial match against Western Province to concentrate on, but also the excitement of the game against the British and Irish Lions and all the Covid protocol palaver that goes with that fixture.

“I presume Phepsi will be ready for the Lions, he feels 100% but just didn’t pass all his tests. So he’s nearly there and it wasn’t a serious concussion. Hopefully he’ll be able to join us on Friday when we fly to Johannesburg and go into a six-day quarantine. We are allowed to train on Friday, Monday and Tuesday, and we’ll have PCR tests on Friday, Monday and Wednesday before the game.

“We’ve had no clarification yet on our kickoff time in Cape Town, but I presume it will be moved from 7pm, but that will have no impact on our preparation. Our message to the players this morning was that we need to be squeaky clean and we would like them to treat it as if they are in self-isolation, just coming to the stadium and going home. Otherwise they could miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime against the Lions,” Everitt said on Monday.

The weather in Cape Town is expected to be poor, so it is excellent news for the Sharks that the booming boot of flyhalf Curwin Bosch is back.

“It’s great to have Curwin back. Everyone goes through disappointments in sport, it’s not the first time he’s had it and he’s over what happened with the Springboks. But he’ll want to make sure he puts in a good performance to show Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber that he can step up if needed. He has a huge boot and that could be a deciding factor.

“It’s beautiful weather in Durban today – 28⁰ – so it’s going to be a bit of a change in Cape Town. I see the Junior Boks were playing in torrential rain on a muddy pitch in Stellenbosch, but we have the game-plan for those conditions and we are able to do the kicking game if needed. But we don’t want to bring a one-dimensional approach either,” Everitt said.

Sharks team: Manie Libbok, Werner Kok, Jeremy Ward (c), Marius Louw, Thaakir Abrahams, Curwin Bosch, Jaden Hendrikse, Mpilo Gumede, Thembelani Bholi, James Venter, Hyron Andrews, Ruben van Heerden, Khutha Mchunu, Fez Mbatha, Khwezi Mona. Bench – Dan Jooste, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Wiehahn Herbst, JJ van der Mescht, Reniel Hugo, Dylan Richardson, Grant Williams, Boeta Chamberlain.

Cricket South Africa have been de-recognised by Minister of Sport Nathi Mthethwa in a move that will have serious consequences for the sport in this country.

The failure of the Members Council to accept a new constitution that would institute a majority independent board and an independent chair has led Mthethwa to take drastic action. He and the Interim Board he put in place at CSA have been negotiating with the Members Council since the end of January to try and get the new MoI approved.

The Members Council have called a meeting for Saturday afternoon and there have been suggestions that, far from finally caving in, they will look to take legal action against the Minister to try and prevent him from invoking his powers as laid out in the Sports Act. But the fact that they have to get approval from the Interim Board in order to launch any legal action suggests that route is also denied to them.

Losing the recognition of government will have major effects on CSA, both financially and in terms of the Proteas men’s and women’s teams.

It is believed many of their sponsorship deals will have clauses in their contracts making them dependent on CSA being the recognised body running cricket in this country. In these economically constrained times of Covid, sponsors looking for an excuse to pull out now have a watertight reason. It is also believed that four potential sponsors that were lined up to come on board later this year have now withdrawn their interest.

The International Cricket Council have been kept up to date on developments in the crisis by Mthethwa and they have been happy to take a back seat because the Sports Minister’s involvement is seen as being a bid to improve the governance of the sport.

But Mthethwa’s de-recognition of CSA now means they are not allowed to use the Proteas emblem or the national flag. Any teams they choose will not represent the country and, in fact, government could deny the teams the right to leave the country or block overseas sides from entering.

Rebel touring teams have been a controversial part of South Africa’s cricket history, and now the national side itself could be considered a rebel team.

It is at this stage that the ICC will have to take action because technically any match involving the ‘Proteas’ would be a friendly, unofficial contest. That would seriously detract from the international game.

The other major blow that will strike CSA will be the cancellation of broadcast deals. The amounts being paid for broadcast rights have been decreasing recently, mirroring a lessening of interest in the product, and the current broadcast deals will be premised on the actual Proteas playing proper international cricket.

No broadcaster will be willing to part with their millions of dollars to show what will amount to friendlies because no cricket involving or played in South Africa will have official standing.