Ken Borland

Veteran Sunshine Tour star Adilson da Silva goes into this week’s Titleist Championship in hot form and believing that a win is nearby when the third event of the Rise Up Series tees off at Pretoria Country Club on Wednesday.

The 48-year-old is third in the order of merit having finished sixth in the Betway Championship at Killarney Country Club and tied for second in last week’s African Bank Championship at Glendower; only the winners of those respective tournaments – Darren Fichardt (Killarney) and Danie van Tonder (Glendower) are ahead of him. And Da Silva has fond memories of Pretoria Country Club, having finished 11^th there in 2018 on his last competitive visit, for one of his best European Tour co-sanctioned results.

“It’s definitely a course I like because it doesn’t really suit the bombers and it’s a bit dry so it probably won’t run as much as the last two courses have. So if you can hit the fairways then the ball should stay on and the greens are stunning, quicker than they usually are during summer – you will hole a lot of putts if you get your stroke right. The greens are so good and my putting feels right.

“I had a practice round this morning [Tuesday] and I’m happy with the way I’m hitting the ball. I’m very happy with the way I’ve been playing but I’ve just got to be patient. Wild shots on this course can get you into trouble very quickly because of all the bunkers and trees. It could be cold too and they say the wind will be up. I hope they keep the greens fairly soft otherwise it’s going to be very hard to get close,” Da Silva told The Citizen on Tuesday.

Cold air will also mean the ball not going as far as usual on the Highveld and Da Silva knows the importance of accuracy off the tee.

“You’ve got to hit good shots, especially off the tee it’s very important. If you drive well then you’re going to give yourself lots of chances. Fortunately I’ve been hitting the ball good and putting well and just a little change made by John Dickson, the coach at Johannesburg Country Club, has helped a lot,” Da Silva said.

There are, however, other contenders who have even more intimate knowledge of the Waterkloof course. George Coetzee knows exactly where to ping his drives having won the Tshwane Open at Pretoria Country Club in 2015 and 2018, while Fichardt has played there since he was a teenager and won several amateur titles and Jacques Blaauw finished second, sixth and tied-13^th in the European Tour co-sanctioned tournaments held there.

Geoff Toyana will give his Eagles team his usual shrewd strategic input before the game but the veteran coach knows that the nature of 3TCricket is such that that will only be the tip of the iceberg and captain AB de Villiers will need to be at his sharpest and most flexible if they are to win Saturday’s inaugural unveiling of the new format.

The country’s best 24 available cricketers will return to action in a SuperSport Park bio-bubble and the beloved game will return to our television screens on Saturday in a fundraising match for the cricket industry’s hardship fund. But it will be a version of the sport never seen before as three eight-member teams will battle it out at the same time, each batting for 12 overs in six-over blocks against each of their opponents.

The Eagles, Kingfishers and Kites will get their first sip of 3TCricket on Thursday when they play a practice match, but Toyana is already certain that captains will play the leading role. He has full confidence in his skipper, former Proteas captain De Villiers, who will lock horns with current national limited-overs captain Quinton de Kock (Kites) and ace fast bowler Kagiso Rabada (Kingfishers).

“It’s something new for all of us and we are still finding our strategy, tomorrow [Thursday] is the perfect opportunity to test things out and also sharpen up on the rules. There’s not just one opponent to worry about now but two and you need to be smart in terms of who bowls against who, each bowler only gets three overs, so do you bowl say Lungi Ngidi for two overs against the first team or against the second side?

“There are going to be headaches like that and the last man stands rule in batting is also very exciting. I think the captain is going to be the big player and he needs to get his tactics spot-on. He’ll have to really think on his feet, but fortunately AB is really positive and passionate about this. And he’s hitting the ball extremely well, as good as I’ve ever seen him hit it in fact,” Toyana told The Citizen on Wednesday.

While the Covid-19 restrictions will rob the match of some of its joy, Toyana said the players are all delighted to be playing cricket again.

“It’s just a really good thing to be back on the field again, the sun’s shining and we had really good training. Rassie van der Dussen is also looking good although he keeps wanting to bowl, Andile Phehlukwayo had a good hit too and Bjorn Fortuin was in his element. Lungi Ngidi and Junior Dala have been hard at work here at the Titans for the last two weeks and they are very excited too.

“We will have to observe social distancing of course and there are some strange red lines on the field. Plus the players all use their own balls, which makes it tricky for the coach because you hit one to a player and he ignores it because it’s not his ball! But these are tough times, it’s a charitable cause and the guys all just want to help out,” Toyana said.

Originally, Proteas white-ball spinner Tabraiz Shamsi was the only slow bowler named in the squads, but Highveld Lions star Bjorn Fortuin has subsequently replaced Sisanda Magala, who has pulled out due to a family bereavement. Judging by how spinners were fatally under-rated when T20 first came along, not having a frontline spinner could hurt the chances of the Kites, although Jon-Jon Smuts is far from a part-timer.

“I think this game will be good for spinners as well and I’m glad we’ve got one. And Bjorn is one of the best in the country at controlling the field, we could even use him up front against certain batsmen,” Toyana said.

Kwagga Smith has unparalleled strength for a man of just 80kg who is 1.80 metres tall, and his tremendous exertions led a muscular display from the Lions pack as they sealed an exciting 29-28 win in the final quarter of their SuperRugby match against the Waratahs at Ellis Park on Saturday.

Smith made a couple of crucial turnovers in the second half, including the one that led to the Lions claiming the lead for the first time in the match, and he punched weigh above his weight in the collisions. Probably the moment that will be most remembered, however, came when replacement centre Adam Ashley-Cooper engulfed his upper body in a tackle but Smith lifted his 98kg opponent off his feet with seemingly just the power of his neck muscles! (see video here)

In this year of superhero-themed SuperRugby, it was an earth-shattering moment and the Waratahs must have been shaken. Shortly thereafter they conceded the penalty, kicked from in front of the poles by replacement flyhalf Shaun Reynolds, that snatched the victory for the Lions.

Having a player like Kwagga Smith performing heroics alongside you can only be inspirational and front-rankers Johannes Jonker, Dylan Smith and Malcolm Marx, and replacement flank Marnus Schoeman all stepped up in that final quarter and flexed their not inconsiderable muscle as well. Some massive scrums and sheer physicality in the collisions won the day.

The Waratahs will certainly be of the view that they gave away a much-needed victory, having led 28-26 with 12 minutes remaining. But to be fair, all three of the visitors’ tries in the first half were rather gifted to them by poor exits by the Lions, who kept putting in silly little chip-kicks from their own 22 and were duly punished.

The first try came as early as the fourth-minute, with Lions coach Swys de Bruin admitting afterwards he had been worried by the start his team made after a torrid tour and a bye week. The vision of fullback Kurtley Beale allowed him to launch a counter-attack into Lions’ territory, but the home side managed to steal the Waratahs’ lineout throw.

Only to give the ball straight back as wing Alex Newsome claimed the chip, Beale and centre Karmichael Hunt put in good runs, before flyhalf Bernard Foley found scrumhalf Nick Phipps dashing up to score the try.

The response of the Lions, seven minutes later, was a repeat of the astounding intercept try scored against the Waratahs by Bulls eighthman Duane Vermeulen last weekend. Hooker Marx intercepted Phipps’s pass off a lineout around halfway and did enough to force a penalty. The Lions kicked to touch, set the maul and then rumbled forward through a couple of pick-and-goes, before flyhalf Elton Jantjies found Aphiwe Dyantyi racing through on an inside-ball, the wing stretching over to score.

Marx may not quite have had the pace to complete the try, but his more obvious strengths came to the fore in the crucial final stages, when he was a dominating figure.

The charity of the Lions continued from the restart though, the ding-dong battle repeating as another silly chip-kick out of their 22 was snapped up by the Waratahs. The Lions defence was then all over the place as flank Michael Hooper weaved his way through for their second try.

The Lions’ response took five minutes this time as the prominent figure of lock Stephan Lewies went over from close range after the rolling maul had been well-defended, levelling the scores at 14-14 after the first quarter.

The to-and-fro pattern of scoring continued as another poor exit by Jantjies led to Rob Simmons, the Waratahs lock, bursting through the yawning gap in the defensive line and scoring.

But the Lions had the final say of the first half as the outstanding inside centre Harold Vorster shaped to pass but then went on a fabulous, arcing run, beating two pairs of tacklers and then putting the grubber through. That man Kwagga Smith showed his pace to get on the end of it and dot down, leaving the Lions two points adrift (19-21) at the break.

The Lions began the second half in spectacular fashion with a try that should make the global highlights of rugby played this weekend, Swys de Bruin later describing it as “one of outstanding beauty that lifted our spirits”.

It started with the Smith turnover in his own 22 and another great run by Vorster started the counter-attack. Eighthman Warren Whiteley then linked up with Lewies, who got the offload away to Marx (although there was a hint of it going forward), and the hooker freed wing Courtnall Skosan to go speeding over for the try and the lead for the first time.

The Waratahs regained the lead in the 57th minute, a flamboyant long pass from Hunt to Rona sending the wing flying down the line. He was stopped just short of the line, but replacement prop Tom Robertson cashed in on quickly recycled ball and crashed over for the try, Foley converting for a 28-26 lead.

To the Waratahs’ credit, they did not suddenly become all economical in their approach, and they kept probing as they rapidly moved the ball through the hands.

But this was a game ultimately won by muscle, with the Lions’ forwards gaining the momentum, this led to penalties that allowed the home side to dictate territory.

With this win, the Lions have climbed into the playoff places in eighth spot, but they are just three points off the conference-leading Sharks and fifth place overall.

The Highveld Lions bowling attack produced their most complete performance of the competition so far, but Proteas batsmen Rassie van der Dussen and Reeza Hendricks stole the show as their record-breaking partnership set up the 19-run win over the Titans in their CSA T20 Challenge derby at the Wanderers on Thursday night.

Hendricks, desperately unlucky to have been left out of the Proteas squad for the World Cup that was announced hours earlier, and Van der Dussen, whose fairytale ascent into international prominence will continue at that showpiece tournament, brought vastly different moods to the contest.

But they dovetailed superbly, adding 151 off just 94 balls, a record for the second wicket in the domestic franchise T20 competition, improving on the previous mark of 145 set by Hashim Amla and Stiaan van Zyl for the Cobras against the Lions in Paarl in 2013/14 and equalled by Morne van Wyk and Kevin Pietersen, playing for the Dolphins against the Warriors in East London, three seasons later.

It is a delicious irony that Hendricks beat an Amla record, seeing as though it was the out-of-form veteran who pipped him for a World Cup spot. While Amla’s class is irrefutable, Hendricks showed he has plenty of the same talents in his marvellous innings of 77 off just 61 balls, full of sparkling drives and a spectacular cut for six over the covers off fast bowler Junior Dala.

Van der Dussen was magnificent in blasting 85 off just 47 balls, with six fours and three sixes spread all round the Wanderers. He never seemed rushed and celebrated his World Cup inclusion in fine style, leading the Lions to a sizeable total of 181 for four after they had been sent in to bat.

T20 cricket in April is never going to attract beer-drinking masses but rather a few coffee-sipping die-hards, plus the autumn pitches are understandably slow, and Titans spinner Gregory Mahlokoana, whose figures of 4-0-22-1 were an excellent effort, was the only bowler to shine for the visitors, until the last over of the innings.

Dala (4-0-33-3) had looked in decent rhythm but he exploded in the 20th over, conceding just six runs and taking three wickets to give the Titans some cheer before their chase.

The early warning signs that the Lions bowlers were up for the contest were there as former Titans player Migael Pretorius, in his first franchise T20 game, smashed into the top of Tony de Zorzi’s off stump at the end of the second over.

Henry Davids (18) looked dangerous and hit three fours, before Dwaine Pretorius dismissed him with his second delivery, but then there were signs that the Titans’ two most in-form batsmen, Theunis de Bruyn and Diego Rosier, were seizing control as they added 56 in five overs.

Rosier (23 off 15) fell in freakish fashion, trying to sweep left-arm spinner Aaron Phangiso but getting a bottom edge on to the flap of his back pad, which was flat on the ground. From there the ball bounced up and rebounded off his body to wicketkeeper Ryan Rickelton, the dismissal being confirmed by the TV umpire.

That it was not going to be the Titans’ night became clearer two overs later when De Bruyn (42 off 28) tried to just punch Nono Pongolo down to long-off but the bowler snaffled a wonderful reflex return catch.

The Titans did not seem ready for the introduction of Pongolo, the sixth bowler used, as he picked up three for 29 in his four destructive overs, and spinners Fortuin and Phangiso also returned to each take a wicket.

Once Farhaan Behardien was dismissed for just 8 as Fortuin pulled off an excellent piece of fielding on the cow-corner boundary, with 12th man Wihan Lubbe playing the supporting role to complete the catch, the Lions were ready to celebrate with the Titans seven down and needing 55 runs off 23 balls to win.

The Titans eventually staggered to 162 for nine in their 20 overs, with Fortuin once again setting the tone by taking one for 26 in his four overs. Pongolo was excellent too and paceman Pretorius made an encouraging T20 debut with two for 32 in four overs.

The Lions did not even need to bowl Proteas all-rounder Wiaan Mulder, which shows just how much in control they were.