A story of two tosses for a match that was scheduled for 5 days, however ended up being three, moist outfields, dodgy run-ups and a tousled touchdown space for the quick bowlers on the Golf Course Finish.
The 4-Day Sequence closing, which ended on Monday in a draw between bitter provincial rivals, the Lions and Titans, was full of incident, even when Cricket SA tried its finest to disregard the entire thing.
There have been some riveting passages of play. Saturday night within the gloom and the quick burst from Lutho Sipamla was pretty much as good as quick bowling will get. “It was virtually Check match depth in that interval,” mentioned Lions captain Dominic Hendricks.
Tempers have been frayed and feelings boiled over on Sunday night resulting in an look in entrance of the match referee for Bjorn Fortuin, who received right into a verbal stoush with Dewald Brevis that nearly turned bodily.
Fortuin copped a Stage 1 sanction — mainly a reprimand. “Sure challenges have been introduced to us and as a pacesetter for my crew, I ought to stand as much as these challenges, not simply within the context of the sport however to guard the integrity of our crew as effectively,” mentioned Fortuin.
“No strains have been crossed. We performed arduous, however we performed truthful.”
Much less truthful was the toss and the truth that it needed to be carried out twice on Friday, as a result of match referee Gerrie Pienaar needed to make sure it was carried stay for the streaming broadcast on Cricket SA’s YouTube channel.
“I believed the match referee ought to have taken a bit extra management,” mentioned Hendricks. “I used to be fairly offended, for me it ought to have been dealt with higher,” mentioned Titans skipper Neil Model.
Hendricks admitted his mistake within the incident, saying he’d misheard somebody — both Pienaar or the streaming director — say to flick the coin within the air. That “first toss” landed in Model’s favour, however Pienaar scratched it off as a result of the cameras weren’t prepared.
After they have been, Hendricks tossed once more, this time the coin fell in his favour and he took the comprehensible choice to bat. He and Model agreed it gave the Lions a bonus.
“I didn’t say a lot to the crew, I stored it to myself,” mentioned Model. “I don’t assume it affected us, we needed to bat. Batting, with these run-ups was a bonus.”
“There’s not a lot I might have finished,” mentioned Hendricks. “If I used to be in [Brand’s] scenario I’d have positively mentioned ‘guys there’s clearly been a mistake’.”
The Lions racked up 413/7 declared with Zubayr Hamza scoring a wonderful 103. They then bowled the Titans out for 123, appropriately enforced the follow-on, and although they bowled Titans out for 371 a second time an excessive amount of time was misplaced within the match for the hosts to drive a win.
The primary day was cancelled, the run-ups particularly on the Corlett Drive finish, have been nonetheless damp, pushing again the beginning of play on day two by greater than three hours, whereas the touchdown space on the Gold Course Finish needed to be repaired 45 minutes after the match began on Friday.
“We’re dissatisfied, principally as a result of we misplaced a lot time within the sport. Had we not, then positively there would have been an opportunity for us to push for the outcome,” mentioned Hendricks.
At the least an hour’s play was misplaced on daily basis resulting from unhealthy gentle however there was additionally excellent resistance on the ultimate day from Lhuan-dre Pretorius, who made his third first-class century in simply his fifth match, Keegan Petersen, who continued his late season revival with two half-centuries within the match and Rivaldo Moonsamy’s gritty 79 within the second innings.
