Times Media
TELFORD VICE, Cape Town
ALMOST every cricketminded South African’s attention is focused on SA’s tour to New Zealand, which ended this morning with the third one-day international in Hamilton.
Then the spotlight will be on a visit to Australia - the first T20 is next Wednesday - and home series in all formats against West Indies, provided they resolve their pay dispute, in December and January.
After that, all attention will be on February 15 in Hamilton for SA’s World Cup opener against Zimbabwe.
But, as tall as he is, Morne Morkel, cannot see past December 6 - when he will marry Roz Kelly, the Australian sport journalist he met during SA’s tour Down Under in November, 2012.
So Morkel has a few extramural activities to get through while SA are in Australia.
“It’s a very important part of it, to go and visit the in-laws,” he said. “It’s the perfect time to go and introduce myself and see how they’re all doing.”
How sweet. But South Africans will want to know how the fast bowler himself is doing on his way back from a rotator cuff problem that kept him out of action for five weeks before the New Zealand tour.
“You can bowl as many bowls in the nets as you like, but game time and pressure in the middle is a different story,” Morkel said. “I’m getting there; I’m happy with the progress.”
With the series against new Zealand already won going into the third ODI and mediocre West Indies not expected to put up much of the fight, the five ODIs SA will play in Australia will be Russell Domingo’s best measure of how ready his team are for the World Cup.
“It’s always tough cricket against them, and it’s the perfect preparation to get our skin even tougher for what’s to come,” Morkel said. “The intensity is always high when you play against Australia; there’s always a bit more butterflies and adrenaline.”
Dolphins v Cobras
In Sunday’s One-Day Cup action, rain washed away the Dolphins’ chance to share the top of the standings with the Cobras at Kingsmead.
A bonus-point win would have put the Durbanites level with the Capetonians, but their match was abandoned without a ball bowled. That means the Cobras will take a five-point lead into the second half of the competition in January.
Knights v Lions
The Lions are a point behind the Dolphins after their eight-wicket win over the Knights in Bloemfontein.
Knights No. 4 Rudi Second added a 74 to the 107 he scored against the Dolphins in the second round, but Dwaine Pretorius’ 4/35 had the bigger impact and the home side were dismissed for 205.
Steven Cook’s 102 and Alviro Petersen’s 52 - and their opening stand of 137 - got most of the job done for the Lions, who won with 11.4 overs to spare.
Warriors v Titans
At St George’s Park, Theunis de Bruyn scored his second century of the competition to guide the Titans to a seven-wicket win over the Warriors.
De Bruyn, who made 108 against the Dolphins in the first round, smashed 152 not out yesterday in the Titans’ reply of 280/3 to the Warriors’ 278/6. The Titans were home with 15 balls remaining.
Marchant de Lange took 4/54 in a Warriors innings anchored by Michael Price’s 71 and Colin Ingram’s 73.
Farhaan Behardien, who was unbeaten on 62, shared an unbroken stand of 175 with De Bruyn that started after the Titans had tumbled to 105/3.
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