TheSportsCampus

The Nashua Mobile Cape Cobras and the Nashua Titans look set for a cliff-hanger of a finish when their SuperSport Series match enters its third day at Boland Park on Saturday. The Cobras launched a magnificent fightback before lunch on Friday to bowl the Titans out for 207 and restrict them to an insignificant first innings lead of 8 runs.

This was after the Titans had been 157/3 at the close of the first day and seemingly in control. Johann Louw opened the door for the Cobras when he dismissed visiting captain Martin van Jaarsveld for 71 (112 balls, 8 fours and 2 sixes) and then Robbie Peterson, who has had a magnificent warm-up for the tour of New Zealand, and fellow spinner Dane Piedt ran through the middle and lower order.

Peterson, having made 58 not out in the Cobras' first innings, took 5/60 and for good measure made second top score of 30 in the second innings.

The Cobras had seemed well placed when they reached 100/3 but they kept on losing wickets and, once Stiaan van Zyl had been dismissed for 67 (150 balls, 7 fours), the bottom fell out of their innings with their last four wickets falling for 9 runs off 23 balls.

Henry Davids was an unusual destroyer in chief, taking 5/22 – his first ever five-wicket haul, beating his previous best of 3/11.

The Titans were left a target of 158 for victory and the top spot on the log but the magnitude of their task soon became apparent when Louw took two wickets in his first three overs.

The Titans finished the day on 17/2, needing a further 141 runs for a key victory.

The Sunfoil Dolphins have enjoyed their best two days of the SuperSport Series to take a decisive grip on their match against the Chevrolet Warriors at Sahara Stadium Kingsmead.

The Dolphins lost their last five wickets for 48 runs to succumb to 321 all out thanks to another outstanding bowling performance by one of the finds of the season, Simon Harmer. He took 6/94 to make him the leading wicket taker in the competition this season with 36 dismissals. Like fellow spinner Peterson he has had a fine all-round match as his unbeaten 40 in partnership with Wayne Parnell, who also made 40, got the Warriors out of a dreadful hole.

They had lost six wickets for 79 runs, three of them to Imran Tahir who opened the bowling, before the two youngsters added 86 for the seventh wicket.

The Warriors are nevertheless in heaps of trouble, having reached 179/7 by the close for an overall deficit of 142 runs.

The bizhub Highveld Lions also suffered something of a top order collapse against the Chevrolet Knights at the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium before the veteran pair of Neil McKenzie and Zander de Bruyn got them out of trouble with a fifth-wicket stand of 152. De Bruyn fell 8 runs short of his century (170 balls, 15 fours) and will go into the third day 95 runs in arrears with 3 wickets in hand.

Johannes van der Wath and Ryan McLaren have taken three wickets each.

Earlier the Knights produced one of their trademark lower-order fightbacks, adding 216 runs for the last five wickets. Werner Coetsee provided the continuity with an unbeaten 78 (154 balls, 7 fours and 2 sixes) and found excellent partners in Van der Wath and Quinton Friend. The latter shared a 78 run partnership for the ninth wicket after Van der Wath had helped add 68 for the eighth wicket.