The Cape Cobras are in danger of missing out on the T20 Challenge playoffs after an eight-wicket defeat to the Dolphins on Friday night.
The Cobras (20 points) were pushed down to third on the log by the Dolphins (22) – who are through to the playoffs – with the Titans having already secured a home final (35).
But Paul Adams’s team have completed their 10-match league programme, and will now have to hope that the Warriors (18) lose to the Lions on Sunday, as four points awarded for a victory. A Warriors win will take them to 22 points and past the Cobras.
The Cape side’s batting let them down badly on Friday at Kingsmead in Durban, with left-arm spinner Robin Peterson registering the highest score of the innings down the order (35 not out off 22 balls, 2x4, 2x6).
This time around, all-rounder Wayne Parnell couldn’t emulate his batting heroics from the last two matches, where he scored 99 and 74 not out. Parnell made a good start, but fell for 27 to spinner Keshav Maharaj as he was caught by David Miller.
The returning Richard Levi lasted just five balls before he was clean-bowled by Dolphins’ Paarl-born paceman Rabian Engelbrecht, who bowled with terrific pace (2/27 in three overs), for four in the first over.
The Cobras lost too many early wickets on a good pitch for batting, with Andrew Puttick (1), Lesiba Ngoepe (11) and Keegan Petersen (2) falling cheaply.
The Cape side also missed veteran Justin Kemp, who was laid low before the game and was ruled out.
Captain Justin Ontong tried to create some impetus for the Cobras, but he battled to find the boundary in a 46-ball 34 (1x4) as Maharaj, Dwayne Bravo and Cameron Delport kept things tight with a mixture of spin and swing.
Robin Peterson and Rory Kleinveldt got the Cobras over the 140-run mark with some vital blows at the end, but 142/7 never quite looked enough.
And so it proved to be as Dolphins openers Delport and captain Morné van Wyk climbed into the Cobras attack, with Kleinveldt getting the brunt of the treatment.
Delport lost his wicket to Peterson for 39 (36 balls, 5x4, 1x6) and when Kleinveldt returned to dismiss David Miller for 10, the Cobras were suddenly in with a chance again.
The pressure had been built by left-arm seamer Mthokozisi Shezi, who followed up his career-best five-wicket haul against the Warriors on Wednesday by conceding just 10 runs in three overs against his former Dolphins teammates.
With Miller’s departure, the Dolphins needed 49 off 31 balls, so the Capetonians would’ve felt that they were back in the game.
But that fairytale was quickly shattered by powerful left-hander Jonathan Vandiar (34 not out off 12 balls, 5x4, 2x6), who dispatched Kleinveldt in an over that went for 19 runs to take the Dolphins to victory with Van Wyk (60 not out off 52 balls, 7x4, 1x6), with eight balls to spare.
@IndyCapeSport