THE Nashua Mobile Cape Cobras made a substantial inroad into the Chevrolet Knights’ lead at the top of the SuperSport Series log when they demolished the bizhub Highveld Lions virtually in two days at Sahara Park Newlands in the latest round of matches.
The Knights played to a draw in a high-scoring match against the Nashua Titans at Chevrolet Park in which no fewer than five centuries were recorded.
The Knights now have 70.34 points compared to the 61.56 of the Cobras who have a match in hand.
The Chevrolet Warriors almost got off the bottom of the log after scoring their first victory of the season against the Sunfoil Dolphins at Axxess St. George’s. Like the Cobras they too have a game in hand.
The next round of matches starts on December 27 when the Cobras play the Warriors at Paarl while the Knights face the Dolphins at Chevrolet Park. The Titans have home ground advantage at Sahara Park Willowmoore for the Gauteng derby.
Justin Ontong scored his second century of the competition for the Cobras and has moved to the top of the SuperSport Series batting averages. His average is a stunning 107.75 from an aggregate of 431 runs. Jacques Rudolph of the Titans is still far and away the leading runs scorer (592).
In spite of only having the chance to bowl one innings against the Cobras, Pumelela Matshikwe of the Lions is the leading wicket taker (23 with an average of 21.60).
Not surprisingly the bowling averages are topped by the Cobras duo of Johann Louw and Rory Kleinveldt who have taken 38 wickets between them at an average cost of only 15 runs per wicket.
Meanwhile Mark Boucher has helped himself to another world record by becoming the only wicketkeeper to score a Test match half-century and make six dismissals in an innings in the same match for the second time.
He provided the second instance this past weekend, having previously accomplished the feat against Pakistan at Axxess St. George’s in 1998 in what was only his fourth Test match.
The other players to have achieved the feat on one occasion are Denis Lindsay of South Africa, Matt Prior of England and MS Dhoni of India.
Michael Owen-Smith