Dolphins let it all slip away
AFTER losing a thriller at Kingsmead, the Lions paid the Dolphins back handsomely with a six-run victory in their return Ram Slam T20 match at the Wanderers last night.
Just as the Lions must have wondered how they lost by a single run in Durban, so the Dolphins must be agonising over how they failed to reach their modest target of 146.
It was their third defeat in four matches to go with a washout in East London on Friday, and leaves their Ram Slam play-off hopes in jeopardy.
They remain second on the log, seven points behind the Titans, after eight matches and only lead the third-placed Cobras by two points, having played a game more.
The Lions, for their part, are six points behind the Dolphins but with two matches in hand.
Chasing at the Wanderers is the desired option, reflected by the lopsided statistics which confirm that the team batting second normally wins.
Once again the Dolphins’ bowlers did a decent job of restricting the home team to a below-par total, but once again their batsmen were unable to accept the challenge.
What is becoming clear is that the Dolphins are struggling to win without their star batsman, Kevin Pietersen, who was largely responsible for ensuring that they won their first four matches.
Since then, only Morne van Wyk, Vaughn van Jaarsveld and David Miller have threatened to step up, but those three batsmen got out just when they were well set yesterday.
Van Wyk was dismissed for 20 when he and Vaughn van Jaarsveld had put on 45 in 5.3 overs; Van Jaarsveld was dismissed for an explosive 42 in 28 balls, which included four fours and three powerful sixes, at just the wrong moment, while Miller, who threatened to take the Dolphins home with 37 in 25 balls, was bowled neck and crop by Dwaine Pretorius in the 16th over.
It was that over, in fact, which effectively decided the match with Pretorius accounting for Miller and Dwayne Bravo in three balls.
After needing a very gettable 25 in the last three overs, Pretorius conceded only two runs from that over.
Ryan McLaren offered the Dolphins some hope by striking two boundaries in the 19th over, bowled by the wayward Lonwabo Tsotsobe, but Pretorius
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ensured victory by bowling McLaren in his final over.
The right-arm paceman’s excellent return of 4/22 ensured that he picked up the bowling prize.
One of the Dolphins’ major problems is the shaky form of their middle-order batsmen Khaya Zondo, Cody Chetty and Dwayne Bravo.
Earlier, Alviro Pietersen, who won the batting prize, showed some of his prolific 50over form when he struck a clinical unbeaten 60 in 41 balls to shore up the Lions’ innings.
He would probably have been even more effective if he’d gone in at No 3 instead of holding himself back at No 4.
For whatever reason, promising youngster Andre Malan went in first wicket down and scored only 15 at a run a ball, but Petersen did enough to give the Lions a total that, in the end, they could defend.
The Dolphins’ fielding was up and down. McLaren took a fine return catch to get rid of Rassie van der Dussen, but a couple of run-outs were botched and there were some unnecessary overthrows.
Van Wyk’s men have two pool matches left, against the Knights in Port Elizabeth on Saturday, and the Cobras in Durban the following Friday, December 4.
It’s beginning to look ominously clear that they may have to win both matches to qualify for the play-offs.