Proteas and Lions turn on the heat
DOLPHINS CLASH: PROTEAS TEST OPENERS RETURN
The Titans are top of the table but coach Mark Boucher is still not satisfied as they go into their Sunfoil Series match against the Dolphins at the Oval in Pietermaritzburg today.
In a competition that has so far featured only draws in the first three rounds, the Titans are 0.46 points ahead of the defending champion Knights, but Boucher wants more, especially from his bowling attack, and has made it clear he wants that elusive first win to come in Pietermaritzburg.
“We’ve been playing good cricket but not great cricket and I always want to win everything. The batting has come good but the bowling has been below par. If we had bowled better I think we would have had more than just winning draws,” Boucher said.
Batsman Bafana Mahlangu, fresh from scoring 86 for Northerns against Border, will make his Titans debut, with Test openers Aiden Markram and Dean Elgar returning, and the visitors are likely to field both spinners, Shaun von Berg and Tabraiz Shamsi, against the Dolphins.
Potchefstroom will host the other big clash of the fourth round, with the Knights visiting the Highveld Lions. Both teams have plenty of bowling firepower.
Duanne Olivier returns to domestic action to lead the Knights attack, alongside fast bowler Marchant de Lange and wrist-spinner Eddie Leie, who will feel he has a point to prove against his former team, while the Lions welcome back Hardus Viljoen, who showed he still has plenty to offer by taking 24 wickets in five matches for Derbyshire during the winter, and will take the new ball with left-arm quick Beuran Hendricks.
In the other Round Four match, the Cape Cobras, who are still battling at the bottom, host the fourth-placed Warriors at Newlands.