THE Lions have an in-form Dolphins travelling up to the highveld this week for the penultimate round-robin fixture of the Cricket South Africa Four-Day Series competition.
The Dolphins are coming off an impressive victory over the North West Dragons in Durban last week, a match in which a number of their key players, including Jason Smith, who scored a century, picked up confidence in the business end of the competition.
The victory meant that the Dolphins were unbeaten in seven domestic fixtures, having won six straight matches on their way to winning the recently concluded One-Day Cup competition.
They now sit in second place on the Four-Day competition standings, behind only the Lions. However, the Dolphins lost Proteas spinner Keshav Maharaj, who suffered a season-ending injury last week.
On the other hand, the Lions are coming from a draw in Paarl against Boland, but are still unbeaten in the season.
The Lions and Dolphins are pushing for the top spot this week, with the action at the Wanderers starting at 10am on Thursday, with hopes of booking a home final.
“It’s a big game in the context of the season. We know that if we win this game, it sort of guarantees us a home final. If the Dolphins win this game, they could go top of the table, so it’s going to be a massive contest in the context of the season,” Lions coach Russell Domingo told Independent Media.
“They’ve won a competition, we’ve won a competition. We are both vying to try and win two competitions. There’s a lot at stake this weekend, and it promises to be a really good game of cricket.”
Had there not been inclement weather in Paarl last week, there probably would have been a result.
Instead, the Lions had to sit in the change room, while the rain took out many overs out of the match.
Despite being unbeaten in the season and the fact that they sat at the top of the standings, Domingo knew that Boland were a real threat in their home conditions.
“Boland have been playing good cricket, so there’s no guarantee we would have won that game in any case,” said Domingo, lauding coach Justin Ontong’s Boland.
“They’ve been playing really well of late, so look, fortunately, we got some batting bonus points, which has helped us. So, we get a decent-ish draw there.
“Obviously, it’s not a deal that we didn’t play the entire game and give ourselves the opportunity to win the game.
“But they’ve been playing good cricket, and they’ve had a good season, so there’s not much we can do about the weather.”
In other fixtures starting on Thursday, Boland will travel to Cape Town for the derby against Western Province, while the Titans will welcome the North West Dragons at SuperSport Park in Centurion (both 10am starts).