Cobras lead the charge
Cape Town franchise turn on the style to top 4-Day series log as white ball cricket resumes
With the South African domestic summer moving to the first part of the limited overs leg of the season‚ the red ball programme will be taking a break.
However‚ the five rounds of the FourDay Franchise Series served up some interesting cricket and the Cape Cobras‚ despite their heavy defeat against the Highveld Lions in Paarl on Thursday‚ will remain at the top of the table.
This is how the tournament has panned out so far.
1. Cape Cobras – Four wins from five games (103.96 points).
The Cape Cobras were superb in four of their five games and even won two games when chasing. That’s a sign of a team who are not only confident in their ability‚ but in knowing when and how to fight back.
2. Highveld Lions – Three wins from five matches with one draw (91.72 points).
Enoch Nkwe’s side had one bad showing when they were crushed by the Cape Cobras early in October.
After that disappointing game‚ they’ve made up for lost ground with convincing wins against the Knights and the Cobras to keep the latter worried at the top.
3. Knights – Two wins‚ two losses and a draw (71.56 points).
When the Knights have been good‚ which was the case in the home wins against the Dolphins (five wickets) and the Warriors (284 runs)‚ they’ve been very good.
They played some smart cricket in their draw against the Warriors before crushing them in Kimberly.
4. Warriors – One win‚ two draws and two losses (61.4 points).
This is also a youngish side with a new coach and at times in their performances‚ it showed. They harried the Dolphins into a shock defeat in Durban and were disappointed not to get more out of draws against the Knights and the Titans despite the adverse weather.
5. Titans – One loss and four draws
(58.54 points).
Barring the loss to the Cape Cobras‚ the weather hasn’t been very friendly to the defending champions. In their draws‚ the Titans have been in reasonable position and against the Dolphins‚ they could have won if they had more time.
6. Dolphins – Three losses and two draws (45.66 points).
The weather has been a problem for the Dolphins but they’ve also been poor in their defeats.
Vaughn van Jaarsveld has been a runscoring mainstay (426 at 42.6).