Pieter Malan makes highest score in the history of the Cape franchise, who record their biggest win; Aiden Markram evokes Barry Richards.
Telford Vice | Cape Town
TO the Dolphins and the Titans will go the distinction of playing the last match in this era of cricket in South Africa. The teams will clash in the first-class final at Kingsmead on Thursday, ending the domestic season — and bringing the curtain down on the six-team franchise model that has been the country’s highest level of domestic cricket since 2004/05. From next summer South Africa will revert to a 15-team provincial model.
The Dolphins booked their place in the final by beating the Warriors by seven wickets at St George’s Park in the last round of league matches, which ended on Friday. The Titans, who drew with the Lions at the Wanderers, were confirmed as the Dolphins’ opponents by the result of a remarkable game at Newlands.
The Cobras had been fangless for more than two years — they last won a first-class match in January 2019 — but they unsheathed a pair of the sharpest against the Knights, who went into the game having lost only two of their previous six games and as contenders for a place in the final. The visitors’ chances were dented when Nandre Burger and Tshepo Moreki shared eight wickets in the visitors’ first innings of 181. The Cobras batted until before tea on the third day before declaring at 523/8. Pieter Malan’s 264 was his career-best score and the highest in the Cobras’ history. He put on 219 with Zubayr Hamza, who made 86, and 217 with Kyle Verreynne, who scored 109. Kept in the field for 176.3 overs, the Knights lasted only 63.2 overs at the crease. They were dismissed for 127 — their last nine wickets fell for 77 — to seal victory for the Cobras by an innings and 215 runs, the Cape side’s biggest triumph. George Linde, who went wicketless in the first innings, took a career-best 7/29.
The Dolphins rumbled the Warriors for 124 in Port Elizabeth with Eathan Bosch taking 3/18 and Kerwin Mungroo, Ruan de Swardt and Keshav Maharaj claiming two wickets each. Senuran Muthusamy’s 52, Khaya Zondo’s 111 and Maharaj’s 66 powered the Dolphins’ reply of 358. They lost 5/87 before Zondo and Maharaj added 132 for the eighth wicket. Eddie Moore, who scored 155, and Gihahn Cloete, who made 65, put the Warriors on the path to better things with an opening stand of 145. Then Moore and Yaseen Vallie shared 100 for the second wicket. But the end of that stand, when Maharaj had Vallie stumped, was where it all started going wrong for the home side, who lost their last nine wickets for 100 and were dismissed for 345. Maharaj took 6/93, his third five-wicket haul in two matches and his fourth in five games in the competition this season. The Dolphins needed 112 to win, and Muthusamy scored 57 of them unbeaten.
The Lions and Titans pulled the plug on their match at tea on the fourth day, when the Titans required 164 to win but had already been confirmed as finalists. Dominic Hendricks’ 99 stuck out in the Lions’ first innings of 206. Hendricks’ dismissal was the start of a slide of 6/51. Opener Aiden Markram was eighth out for 100. And a good thing too for the Titans: Sibonelo Makhanya’s 23 was their next best effort in a total of 202 in which Kagiso Rabada took 5/51 and Lutho Sipamla 5/37. Markram’s century was his fifth of the season in this competition, which put him in a club with Peter Kirsten, Graeme Pollock, HD Ackerman, Dean Elgar and Stephen Cook for the most hundreds in a single senior domestic campaign. The Lions found their roar in their second innings, when they declared at 308/9 after Lizaad Williams had taken 4/74. Having ridden high on the swings, Hendricks found himself on the roundabouts when he was caught behind the single he didn’t score in the first innings. But Ryan Rickleton made 58, Reeza Hendricks 96 and Wiaan Mulder 56 not out to keep the Lions in the hunt. Set 313 to win, the Titans looked up for it while Elgar and Markram were scoring 68 and 64 and sharing 125. They equalled the record for the most century opening stands in senior domestic cricket in South Africa — in 1998/99, Sven Koenig and Adam Bacher also mounted four such partnerships. Markram’s aggregate of 945 runs for the season, at an average of 94.50, left him 55 short of emulating Barry Richards, who topped 1,000 runs in a domestic season in 1971/72 and 1972/73. But Richards had 15 and 16 innings during those summers, compared to Markram’s dozen trips to the crease in 2020/21.
On Thursday the Dolphins will try to clear the last hurdle of a campaign for the only time in three attempts in 2020/21. But it’s the first time this summer that the Lions have not reached a final. Those teams shared the one-day title after that decider was washed out, and the Lions beat the Dolphins in the T20 final.
First published by Cricbuzz.
Bulletproof Truth 