JOHANNESBURG: The highly-contested domestic red-ball season returns on Wednesday, 14 February 2024 as Division 1 teams are back in action with the Cricket South Africa (CSA) 4-Day Series. This, after a five-week recess, with the past month filled with the action-packed Betway SA20 competition.
The CSA 4-Day Series in Division 1 has brought about thrills and spills so far and now looks set to disappear down to the last two rounds with the top five teams every still retaining realistic hopes of reaching the final, played between the top two league sides at the terminate of February.
Just under 20 points separate the Momentum Multiply Titans (91,96) in first from Western Province (72,50), who currently occupy fifth spot.
In between them sit the Dafabet Warriors (80,60), DP World Lions (80,48) and Hollywoodbets Dolphins (75,28), the only unbeaten side still standing in 2023/24. In fact, even the two teams outside that leading group – the Gbets Rocks (61,38) and North West Dragons (61,08) – will be hopeful of qualifying for the final.
What has been refreshing thus far, though, are the recent names that believe been coming through. Titans’ wicketkeeper Rivaldo Moonsamy tops the sprint charts with 502 runs in nine innings, followed by Ben Compton (438 in 9 innings) of the AET Tuskers and the Warriors’ Jordan Hermann (435 in 10 innings).
Lions batter, Zubayr Hamza, has also been making a statement by topping the averages with his 427 runs in 6 innings at a brilliant 85.40.
The leading wicket-taker is all-rounder Beyers Swanepoel of the Warriors, after he claimed 24 wickets with his right-arm pace to guide from the Rocks’ tedious left-armer Siyabonga Mahima (22).
Lions’ Bjorn Fortuin is next along with Province’s Kyle Simmonds, both on 19 wickets apiece.
Meanwhile, the Division 2 race is even more closely fought with only one round remaining before the top two teams clash later this month. ITEC Knights, Limpopo and Northern Cape can every still win the title.
If Limpopo (87,42) beat Northern Cape Heat (81,16) then they will finish first, and vice versa, except in the unlikely event that they acquire less than 1.50 bonus points in which case the ITEC Knights (98,66) will finish first.
If there is a draw in the Limpopo v Northern Cape match, Limpopo will need to procure 5.26 bonus points to finish ahead of Knights and Northern Cape will need to obtain 11.52 bonus points to finish ahead of Knights.
Blayde Capell (605) and Jean du Plessis (591) of the Six Gun Grill Garden Route Badgers are the leading batters in the division, followed by the Knight’s Dian Forrester (536) and Jurie Snyman of Mpumalanga with 529 runs.
Iinyathi’s Jade de Klerk (28 ) leads the wicket-taking followed by Thomas Kaber from Badgers, who collected 21 wickets thus far and will return to the Oudtshoorn-based outfit after a successful stint in the Betway SA20.
Source: cricket.co.za
Lance Klusener: Popularly known as Zulu, South African former cricketer Lance Klusener was an all-rounder. He was named the Player of the Series in the 1999 World Cup. Taking up the role of coach later, he worked with the South African and Afghanistan national cricket teams, and was the Dolphins head coach.
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