Pro20 : Titans rock defending champions

The Titans hosted the defending Standard Bank Pro20 champions The Cobras on Sunday afternoon at SuperSport Park. Before the game started there were rain clouds all around the stadium, having shared the points with the Dolphins the week before due to rain, the Titans could not afford another non-result due to the weather.

The Cobras won the toss and elected to bowl, which I found strange due to the chance the game could be affected due to rain, I’d always choose to bat under those circumstances. The Cobras premier bowler Charl Langeveldt opened the bowling, and was immediately hit for consecutive boundaries. This set the tone, the Titans batsmen put on 53 runs from 5 overs before lightening and then rain stopped play.

After the rain interval the game was reduced to 12 overs, which only gave the batsmen license to go for the big shots, and it was Bodi that came off. In his innings Gulam Bodi scored 88 runs from just 44 balls which included six 6’s and seven 4’s. The Titans ended their shortened inning on 136/1.

Needing 11.3 runs per over, The Cobras were under pressure from the first over. Andrew Puttick got them off to a flyer, before he was out caught and bowled by Basheeru-Deen Walters for just 9 runs. The ever powerful Herschelle Gibbs came in at three, and rocked the party. Gibbs hit 6’s all over the park before he got bogged down by the bowling of Titans captain Pierre Jouburt and Roelof van der Merwe. The two bowlers stopped the flow of runs and the pressure told. Gibbs was out caught by a brilliant Albie Morkel catch two short of his half century. The fall of his wicket was the beginning of the end, the game was already in the bag by the time Morkel bowled the penultimate over, taking two wickets.

In the end the Titans won comfortably ensuring that their Standard Bank Pro20 hopes stayed alive. The Cobras on the other hand have some thinking to do, their bowling was poor which resulted in massive pressure on their batsmen.

Stiaan van Zyl

I’m sure that you have recently heard of Stiaan van Zyl. I noticed Stiaan the other night when he knocked up 101 for the Cape Cobras in the  MTN40 match at Kingsmead, Durban. He then followed that century up with another this time scoring 114* against the Eagles in Kimberly.

Stiaan van Zyl is currently the fourth highest run scorer in the MTN40 with 362, with an average of 60.33 from 7 innings, add to that a strike rate of 96.02.

Stiaan van Zyl was born September 19, 1987, Cape Town. He’s a left -handed batsman, who bowls medium pace with his right-hand. He was named the Boland Cricket Board’s player of the year in 2007, he attended Boland Agricultural High School. Stiaan van Zyl finished in the top five of the SuperSport batting averages during the 2007-08

Nashua Dolphins win away semi final

The Nashua Dolphins set the Cape Cobras a record total to chase for the win at Newlands. The total of 162 would have been the highest total chased down in a Pro 20 game at Newlands.

Sanath Jayasuriya who was bought for R 1 000 000 for the Standard Bank Pro20 campaign came out blazing for the Dolphins, hitting Rory Kleinveld for three six’s in a row, then followed them up with a 4, Jayasuriya took 23 off the over. He was eventually out for 41 off 24 balls. The ever reliable HD Ackerman top scored for the Dolphins with 62 runs. Ackerman is now the top scorer in the Standard Bank Pro20 2009. The Cobras fight back showed their quality, while Jayasuriya was at the crease the Dolphins were on track to score 200.

The Cobras were favorites to win with only 162 on the board, but it was not to be, the early loss of Henry Davids and Herschelle Gibbs found the Cobras at 4/2. This brought captain Graeme Smith and JP Duminy together, currently one of the best bating pairs in world cricket. Smith and Duminy started the recovery, as soon as they got going JP Duminy was caught behind by a stunning catch by wicket keeper Smit trying to run it to third man.

Smith was then caught on the boundary for 32 from 28 to take the Cobras to 63-5. At 68-7 Jayasuriya took a wicket from his first ball in Pro20 cricket. Telemachus and Levi (46) put up some resistance but it was too little to late, the early loss of wickets were to much to overcome.

The Cobras have some hard work to do, their Proteas filled team has failed again.

Cobras crumble in Kimberley

The Cape Cobras took on the Eagles tonight in the Standard Bank Pro20 at a very wet De Beers Diamond Oval in Kimberley.

The rain slowed the pitch a bit, and with the threat of rain the Eagles got off to a slow start with the bat. After four overs they had just 16 runs on the board, that soon changed in the fifth to seventh overs with Adrian McLaren hitting 50 off 32 balls before he was out; caught van Zyl off Henderson bringing the opening stand to a close on 116.

Van Wyk went to his half century off 34 balls and was eventually run out for 59, the Eagles then lost momentum and the Cobras got back into the game restricting the Eagles to 176-3 when over 200 runs was on the cards.

The Cobras looked promising, after 3 overs they had a run rate of over 9, but then Derek Brand top edged one to bring in Henry Davids, who didn’t last long. It was all downhill from there. From 27/1 to 44/4 to 71/7 then all out for 88.

A poor performance with the bat, handing the Eagles the win with a bonus point.