Cobras dominate the opening day
BEDINGHAM: SHOWS A DAZZLING ARRAY OF STROKES
Ken Borland
Apoor Centurion pitch saw various deliveries bounce steeply from a length, others rolled, some turned sharply and many of the rest deviated prodigiously off the seam. But ultimately the Cape Cobras just stuck to the basics far better as they dominated the opening day of their Four-Day Domestic Series match against the Titans at SuperSport Park yesterday.
The Titans won the toss and elected to bat first on a pitch that was green in the middle and shaved at the ends, the home side obviously believing batting would only get more difficult.
They found it beyond their capabilities though, as the Cobras hit the right areas more often than not and picked off the batsmen with ruthless efficiency to skittle them for 122 all out.
Theunis de Bruyn was the one Titans batsman to handle the vagaries of the pitch, scoring a classy 61 that displayed the full range of his talents.
Shaun von Berg (22) was the only other batsman to reach double figures, as he collected five fours with a variety of meaty blows.
The wickets were shared around by the four disciplined Cobras seamers, but it was Tladi Bokako (10-1-57-4) who made the early strikes and Dane Paterson (12.4-2-34-3) who wrapped up the tail.
The Cobras were batting already midway through the second session and the Titans bowlers, in stark contrast to the visiting attack, bowled various lines and all sorts of lengths, conceding a runrate of 4.92 runs-per-over.
The star of the day as the Cobras finished on 256 for eight, already a lead of 134, was David Bedingham, who showed a dazzling array of strokes but also solid defence when needed, as he made 84 off 89 balls.
Crucially, there were other contributions from Zubayr Hamza (28), Kyle Verreynne (42) and Jason Smith (44*) as Bedingham shared partnerships of 52 for the third wicket, 84 for the fifth and 30 for the sixth.