Woes mount for Cobras
THE time has arrived for crisis talks at the Cape Cobras after they slumped to another defeat in the Four-Day Domestic Series yesterday, stretching their winless streak in the competition to 14 matches.
A side that should be among the elite teams appears to be lurching listlessly in the last two seasons, and as a keen follower of professional football, coach Ashwell Prince will know it’s results that matter.
This season they lost their first match from a very advantageous position to the Titans at Newlands, hung on for a draw against the Lions, and in Port Elizabeth, against the Warriors this week, took a 61-run first innings lead and still ended up losing the game by 80 runs.
Both defeats have come after they had first innings leads, and with an opposing player producing something special – Theunis de Bruyn made a century in the final innings for the Titans, while Rudi Second this week made a ton as the Warriors took a match-winning lead.
The Cobras have been overreliant on Kyle Verreynne and George Linde and the Warriors snuffed out those threats in the Cobras’ second innings, with Marco Jansen having Verreynne caught behind for 11, while Linde – the outstanding player for the Proteas in the T20 series against England – pulled Basheer Walters to Matthew Breetzke at midwicket for 19.
Janneman Malan top scored with 65, but there was no support from the other batsmen.
Among numerous concerns for the Cobras is the form of skipper, ubayr Hamza, who’s scored 167 runs in 10 innings this season and made more ducks (2) than fifties (0).
Second was the standout for the Warriors, backing up his courageous fourth innings 171 against the Lions in the previous round with a halfcentury in the first innings and then 114 in the second as the Warriors set the Cobras 265 to win.
Glenton Stuurman, in the week of his first call-up to the Proteas Test squad, picked up four wickets in the match, one of those a peach to Pieter Malan in the second innings that pitched middle and hit the top of the off-stump. Bowl like that at training for the Proteas this week and he’ll be in line for a starting spot on Boxing Day against Sri Lanka.
Migael Pretorius will be joining Stuurman in the national squad after being called up yesterday as concerns remain over the fitness of Kagiso Rabada. Pretorius has made a bright start to the season since moving to the Knights, picking up 20 wickets at an average of 20.57.
He wasn’t even supposed to start for the Knights, but has taken advantage of the injury that prevented Gerald Coetzee starting the first game to cement his spot and built on that good start to earn a chance in the Test squad.
The 25-year-old has certainly taken advantage of having Allan Donald as a coach in Bloemfontein.
Pretorius’ three wickets in the match helped the Knights to a third home victory this season as they beat the Lions by nine wickets.
The win was set up by Raynard van Tonder’s double century in the first innings, which helped the Knights to 472 – their third 400-plus first innings total this season.