SuperSport Series: Round 2

The first round of the SuperSport Series was filled with Proteas’ players as it opened the South African domestic series. The second round was a far less star studded affair, but produced some individual brilliance. I haven’t followed the SuperSport Series this closely before, so wouldn’t know if these stats are normal, but it’s worth a mention the number of big scores that batsmen are hitting and bowlers who single handily tear teams apart – a good contest between bat and ball.

Cape Cobras vs Titans

The result of the weekend went to the Cape Cobras beating my Titans by 7 wickets. The game was played out as described above, big scores and destructive bowling. Jacques Rudolf (put this boy in the Proteas squad) scored 110 and found support in Behardien (72) who took the Titans to 313. Claude Henderson took 7 wickets for the Cobras in the innings.

Stiaan van Zyl then humbled the Titan’s bowlers as he hit a personal best of 172 at a strike rate of 83.90 – The Cobras amassing 508 runs.

At 195 runs behind the Titans had a massive mountain to climb, there was far less resistance from the Titans batsmen in the second innings. Behardien top scored with 44 as the Titans stumbled to 271 all out only 76 runs ahead. Again Henderson took affect, taking 3 wickets, ending the match with figures of 10 for 196.

The Cobras needed only 26 overs to chase down the 77 needed for victory. Fortunately the Titans previous thumping of the Warriors in round 1 ensured they remain top of the SuperSport Series log.

Dolphins vs Warriors

Last week when describing the Dolphins’ effort  against the Knights , I wrote: “Some have suggested that the Dolphins may turn a team or two over, but I’m not so sure” – this week I’m eating humble pie.

Another massive score, 169 by Imraan Khan with a solid contribution of 102 by Ahmed Amla took the Dolphins to 500/6 dec. They then skittled the Warriors out for 156, amongst some controversy over poor light.

The Dolphins enforced the follow on, the Warriors playing for the draw, succeeded, only due to Ashwell Prince’s 123. The Dolphins had the Warriors 9 down when play ended, just one wicket short of an innings victory. A notable contribution with the ball came from Imran Tahir who took 5 wickets in the second innings, and 4 in the first.

Kevin Pietersen must have been pissed as he only got to bat once in his “warm up to the Ashes”.

Lions vs Knights

The Knights posted 372 in their first innings, Ryan Bailey top scoring with 94. The Lions replied with 482 giving them a first innings lead of 110 with contributions from three batsmen, Stephan Cook (73), Neil McKenzie (94) and Vaughn van Jaarsveld (97).

Trailing by 110 the Knights only managed a further 204/9 before the game closed as a draw – Paul Harris taking 5 wickets in the second innings.

South Africa is in a dominant position at the close of play on the first day of the third and final Castle Test match at Sahara Park Newlands, Cape Town. Ricky Ponting won toss and elected to bat first, perhaps not the best decision. A poor start in the field saw South Africa drop two catches, while the Australians moved on to 58/0. Imraan Kahn dropped a sitter and JP Duminy dropped Hughes off Paul Harris. Harris stepped up and took the wicket of Hughes two balls later to open the wicket taking.

One run later and Ricky Ponting was walking back to the Pavilion with a duck next to his name. The highest scorer for Australia was Katich who was out for 55 off 160 balls.

Jacques Kallis captained the team well and had the Australians all out for 209, an hour before the end of the day. Enter Imraan Kahn and Ashwell Prince, the expectation to score was high after scoring a big century and a double century respectively. Prince led the partnership scoring freely to take play to a close with South Africa on 57/0. Prince had scored 37 runs from 36 balls in a powerful batting display.

South Africa are 157 runs behind, if Prince picks up where he left off the Australians are going to be in trouble by lunch on day two.

All the rumors of unhappiness in the team have been put to rest by an inspiring batting performance, now we need to keep or heads and add 300 runs on day two to setup a powerful first innings lead.

Bowling performances from South Africa:

Steyn: 16 overs, 56 runs, 4 wickets
Ntini: 17 overs, 38 runs, 2 wickets
Kallis: 10 overs, 31 runs, 0 wickets
A Morkel: 12 overs, 44 runs, 1 wicket
Harris: 17 overs, 34 runs, 3 wickets

Imraan Khan scored his fifth century of the season today, ensuring that he wasn’t out done by Ashwell Prince’s 254 for the Warriors. Khan’s century came from 175 balls, he ended the day on 135 not out. Both players were named in the squad to take on Australia in the third and final test match at Newlands. It seems that some players only need a sniff at a chance of playing for the Proteas to up their game.

It’s great to see South Africa has depth, we’ll be expecting big things from these to players that seem to be in fine form.

Unfortunately there hasn’t been much to write about when it comes to bowling in Super Sport series, the only noticeable performance came from Yusuf Abdullah, taking 5 wickets from 63 runs in 19 overs for the Dolphins.

Imraan Kahn was named in the Proteas test squad for the third and final Castle Test match, we looked up Imraan Kahn and found out what he’s done to get picked.

Imraan Khan:

08/09 Super Sport series

First Class Career

Imraan Khan scored century against the Australians in a Castle three-day match at Senwes Park in Potchefstroom. The left-hander seized the opportunity on a glorious day for batting, hitting 86 runs before lunch and further added 14 runs before he was out to Peter Siddle for exactly 100 (106 balls, 18 boundaries).

Imraan Khan led South Africa’s Under-19 team on their tour of England in 2003