T20 Challenge
Highveld Lions: 139/8 (Parnell 3/22, Moreki 3/26, Van der Dussen 56)
Cape Cobras: 117/10 (Levi 41, Leie 4/26)
Highveld Lions won by 22 runs
Paarl - If the powers-that-be were content to live in cloud-cuckoo-land that everything at the Cape Cobras is hunky-dory then Sunday’s abject performance at Boland Park must surely be the final nail in the coffin.
Set only 140 to secure a place in the T20 playoffs – albeit on a sluggish BolandPark surface that became slower as the intense Paarl sun baked down on it in the afternoon – star-studded Cobras batting line-up wilted in the heat.
Teams that possess a strong spirit in the dressingroom don’t fold over the way the Cobras did on Sunday. The fight, battle and grit it out for each other and do not simply give away their wickets in such a soft manner.
Last year’s capitulation in the T20 playoff against the Dolphins at Kingsmead was horrible. This was just a complete mess from the moment Proteas superstar Hashim Amla was caught in the deep off national teammate Dwayne Pretorius.
Amla’s early dismissal allowed Eddie Leie to spin a web around the rest of the Cobras batting order. The Proteas leg-spinner tormented the Cobras batsmen with his lengths and variations of pace to claimed 4/26 in his allotted four overs. Leie claimed the big scalp of Cobras opener Richard Levi, who bludgeoned 41 off only 33 balls (5x4, 1x6), and also picked up the wickets of Dane Vilas (4), Wayne Parnell (10).
However, it was the early loss of Amla and JP Duminy – both to Pretorius – that allowed Leie and fellow spinners Bjorn Fortuin (2/23) and Aaron Phangiso (0/20) to tighten the noose around the Cobras batsmen like they did.
The Lions delivered 12 overs of spin and conceded just 69 runs and picked up six Cobras wickets in the process. One of those half a dozen was Cobras captain Kieron Pollard, who was the Cobras’ last realistic hope of climbing out of an almighty hole they dug for themselves.
It was all so different at the lunch interval after Tshepo Moreki had made a solid to the Cobras team. The right-arm seamer, who has been out of favour for the majority of the T20 Challenge campaign, came into the starting line-up at the expense of Rory Kleinveldt and made an immediate impact.
Moreki tore the heart out of the Highveld Lions batting unit with three major scalps in the middle-order. The visitors had made a solid start with openers Reeza Hendricks and the dangerous Rassie van der Dussen putting on 45 for the first wicket.
However, this promising stand was brought to a close just on the stroke of the completion of the six powerplay overs through a bit of brilliance in the field from Wayne Parnell, who ran out Hendricks for 17.
The Lions had hoped to build on this early momentum and promoted Pretorius to the No 3 position ahead of Mangaliso Mosehle. The pinch-hitting experiment backfired when Moreki clean bowled Pretorius for a three-ball duck in his opening over.
With Pollard chipping in with the wicket of Van der Dussen for 56 (44 balls, 4x4, 1x6) a few overs later, the Lions were pushed right back as the opener was the only visiting batsmen that was able to play with any sort of fluency on a sluggish Boland Park track.
It was the opening the Cobras were searching for and it was Moreki who charged through the door. Although ill-disciplined on occasion with the 23-year-old being guilty of five wides in his spell, the former KwaZulu-Natalian came back strongly with a two further wickets in his final over.
Wicket-keeper Mosehle was the big Lions hope to post a formidable total, but he was caught by Nkululeko Serame of Moreki’s bowling for a promising 31 off 24 balls (3x4, 1x6) before Nicky van den Bergh also succumbed three balls later for just one. The Lions had slipped to 112/5 and were in grave danger of not batting out their allotted 20 overs.
They eventually did but were not able to create any forward momentum in their innings with Temba Bavuma (15), Wiaan Mulder (8) and Hardus Viljoen (0) all falling in Parnell’s final over in a bid to up the run-rate.
The Lions though never stopped believing it was enough though and it is now they who can look forward to a playoff on Tuesday, while the Cobras are left to contemplate where they are heading as a team.