JUKSKEI JAMBOREE
DERBY: SPARTANS, STARS LOCK HORNS AT WANDERERS
There is plenty riding on tonight’s result for both sides.
The equation does not get any simpler for the Tshwane Spartans – win their last two round-robin matches and they will be in the Mzansi Super League play-offs no matter what the other teams do.
The first of those games is a mouthwatering local derby against the Jozi Stars at the Wanderers tonight, and the match is vital for the hosts as well because if they win, they seal home ground advantage for the play-off, but if they lose they open themselves to the possibility of not finishing in the top three at all, depending on other results.
Even without Chris Gayle, who has returned to Jamaica to bury his mother, the strength of the Jozi Stars batting line-up does make them a tough side to beat. Reeza Hendricks has been on fire, Ryan Rickelton will be an able replacement for Gayle, Rassie van der Dussen and Dane Vilas are experienced heads in the middle-order, and Pite van Biljon and Dan Christian are potent finishers.
“Our recipe has been to set the innings up and that has worked for us; even if we’re 60-odd for one after 10 overs, and not losing two wickets up front is key, we’ve still been able to reach 200. When we get it right, we are difficult to beat and we’ve seen that if our batting comes off then we can clear 200 and then we have some quality bowlers to defend that,” Van der Dussen said.
But the Spartans have AB de Villiers, who must be ticking away like a nuclear bomb waiting to go off after lots of little cameos but no real big match-winning innings, and the visitors will be hoping he can produce another of his Wanderers specials.
The Spartans have also uncovered a new fast-bowling talent in Lutho Sipamla, who has the second-most wickets in the competition after Duanne Olivier of the Stars and wrist-spinner Jeewan Mendis, his team-mate. If Sipamla can get wickets then it will put pressure on the Jozi Stars.
It’s clear, however, that a not-always-convincing Spartans batting line-up face a big challenge of their own though in facing up to a tremendous Stars pace trio of Olivier, Kagiso Rabada and Beuran Hendricks, while there is also the off-spin of Simon Harmer and the canny medium-pace of Christian and Dwaine Pretorius to contend with for the visitors.
Cape Town Blitz head coach Ashwell Prince believes his team are ready to “turn up” when they host the inaugural Mzansi Super League final at Newlands on Sunday.
The table-toppers had already secured the hosting rights before their final league game against the Durban Heat got underway, and Prince admitted he faced a ‘double-edged sword’ after initially selecting his team.
“Before we came to the ground, we didn’t know if we needed to win the game against Durban Heat or not. Maybe later on (after having already selected the starting XI) there was an opportunity to give other players some game time but you also want to get some players to get into form before the final,” Prince said.
“So it’s a bit of a double-edged sword to give some guys a game but other people having to find some form ahead of the final,” he added.
Despite going down by six wickets – their third defeat of the campaign – Prince believes his team’s lethargic performance did not matter, but come Sunday, when the team take to the field in the final, they need to turn up.
“There is a lot of pressure throughout the tournament and I suppose before the game started, a lot of that tension would have been taken out of the fixture and maybe also a bit of urgency. At the end of the day, games that don’t matter, don’t matter – that’s the bottom line. Today’s game didn’t matter, Sunday’s game matters and it’s about turning up when it matters,” he stated.