Every championship-winning side needs the ultimate team player.
A player who doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty in a scrap, and a player you can depend on to deliver the goods in the most arduous situations.
In limited-overs cricket, Dane Vilas is the Cape Cobras’ go-to man, a man for every occasion. Whether he needs to be pushed up the order to move the scoring rate along, or try and chase down a target, Vilas has almost always delivered in one way or another.
And he is likely to play another key role for the Cape side when they contest the 1-Day Cup final against the Titans at Newlands tomorrow.
While big West Indian Kieron Pollard got all the plaudits for his fine all-round performances in the Cape side’s successful T20 campaign, Vilas contributed positively to the side’s batting effort in almost every match.
The Johannesburg-born wicket-keeper knows how to pace an innings and when to ease the pressure with a calculated swipe over mid-wicket.
He again shone with the bat in the Cobras’ last match before the final – a 25-run defeat against the Dolphins – when the Cobras failed to chase down 249 runs in their own backyard.
It was one of the few times that the Cobras batting malfunctioned in this tournament, which they dominated before the break for the T20 series and a few rounds of four-day matches.
Vilas, though, is confident that their batting unit will live up to the Newlands faithful’s expectations when they take on the Titans, who qualified for the final after beating the Dolphins on Tuesday night. Even if it means floating up and down the batting order today.
“I think everybody has done well with the bat. We have got Putters (Andrew Puttick and Richard Levi) doing very well upfront, and some of us down the back-end. So we are looking to fire again,” Vilas said.
“I’m comfortable batting anywhere, I have done it throughout my whole career. It’s just the game situation and team dynamics where you have to fit in. So wherever I bat, I’m comfortable. But I think I will probably slot in to the middle order somewhere for this match, at five or six.”
The Cobras’ stuttering displays towards the back-end of the competition was partly due to the call-ups of a few key players for the recent England Lions tour to South Africa. The likes of Vilas and captain Justin Ontong were drafted into the SA A side, and left a bit of hole in their middle order.
Before the gap in the one-day fixtures they played some top cricket and lost only one match. However, all their big guns are back, including fit-again opener Andrew Puttick, who was striking the ball nicely in the Newlands nets yesterday.
But they are likely to be without veteran all-rounder Justin Kemp, who is still struggling with a swollen ankle. The former Proteas “finisher” will have reassessed this morning.
If Kemp does not recover in time, he is likely to be replaced by left-arm seamer Beuran Hendricks. - Cape Times