Louw and Langeveldt bring calmness and control to Cobras
THE Cape Cobras’ pace attack, who recently destroyed the Warriors in 1½ days in East London, are primed to maul the Highveld Lions when the teams clash in the Sunfoil Series at Newlands from tomorrow.
Plenty of movement and carry is expected from the Newlands strip, which will again play into the hands of the home side’s “new” pace quartet.
Even in the absence of stalwarts Vernon Philander and Rory Kleinveldt, the Cobras still boast one of the hottest seam attacks around.
The swing and guile of experience campaigners Charl Langeveldt and Johann Louw was beautifully complemented by the raw pace of left-armer Beuran Hendriks and Vredenburg-born Lizaad Williams in the Cobras’ victory of an innings and 50 runs at Buffalo Park.
Williams will continue his role as the fourth seamer because allrounder Justin Kemp’s hasn’t recovered from a hamstring injury. This means that off-spinner Dane Piedt misses out on selection, because the Cobras are going in with an extra batsman to compensate for Kemp’s unavailability.
The spinning duties will be performed by captain Justin Ontong, while opener Alistair Gray’s leg breaks are more than useful at this level.
The Cobras paceman bundled out the Warriors for 104 and 84 in their victory in the Buffalo City just after Christmas to maintain their lead in the competition.
Louw took 10 wickets in the match, including a seven-wicket haul in the second innings. Hendricks set up the match for the Cobras with five wickets in the hosts’ first innings.
“The blend has been very important for us throughout the season, the combination between experience and youth and allowing the two to gel and really work together,” coach Paul Adams said of his bowling attack yesterday.
“Credit must go to the likes of Johann Louw and Charl Langeveldt, who keeps bringing that experience to the side with the likes of Justin Kemp not available for selection.
“It’s nice to have those two players not only performing, but coming in and bringing that calmness to a bowling attack, and a sense of control.”
The table-topping Cobras have certainly been the form side in the four-day competition, and are the only franchise without a loss so far, with four wins, a draw and a rained-out match from their first six matches.
But Adams isn’t taking anything for granted, saying that they still have to play good cricket to try and defeat a Lions side who beat the Dolphins in Durban last weekend.
“It’s an important phase in the competition for us, and it’s important for us to take care of our game and try to play cricket to get us into winning positions,” Adams said.
“A lot of teams can still catch us, that’s why it’s very important for us to just keep focus on our game, not look at what other teams are doing, and just zone in on what sort of cricket we want to be playing.”
The Lions’ major threat with the ball over the next four days, especially in the latter part of the match, is going to be leg spinner Imran Tahir.
Tahir, who was dropped from the Proteas Test squad after a nightmare tour of Australia, bamboozled the Dolphins last weekend for a 12-wicket match haul. He also didn’t bowl a single no-ball, in contrast with what was a massive problem for him in 2012.
Cobras captain Ontong wants his side to strike early and score big in their first innings to nullify the threat the Pakistan-born spinner may pose in the second innings.
“Imran desperately wants to get back into the Test team. He has been bowling well, and is full of confidence, which is massive for a leg spinner,” Ontong said yesterday.
“He is going to be a big factor, maybe in this game. But we just have to play him with confidence. If we can bowl well, and bowl them out cheaply, it could be crucial for us to get a big total on the board so that he doesn’t come into the game that much.”