Warriors or Cobras? The CLT20 beckons... Print E-mail
Category: Domestic Leagues
Written by Luke Tagg   
Friday, 26 February 2010 01:11
The first leg of the second Standard Bank Pro20 semi-final gets underway tonight in Port Elizabeth, with the Warriors hosting the Cape Cobras in a do-or-die dash for Champions League Twenty20 glory.

As great as it is to play in the final of the domestic T20 competition, it's a lot greater to ply your trade on the world stage for getting there.

Both sides are missing international players, but each will gain a bunch before the second leg of the semi-final.

The Warriors will get Turncoat Kallis, Johan Botha, Mark Boucher, Wayne Parnell and Lonwabo Tsotsobe. The Cobras will welcome Graeme Smith (if fit), JP Duminy (if fit), Herschelle Gibbs (if not stoned) and Charl Langeveldt (in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king).

As great as it will be to have those players to rescue a side if they lose the first leg, it's a far better proposition to be 1-0 up - then get your internationals to help with mopping up operations.

These are the squads for the first leg of the semi-final:

Warriors

Davy Jacobs (c)
Justin Kreusch
Colin Ingram
JJ Smuts
Nicky Boje
Rusty Theron
Lyall Meyer
Garnett Kruger
Craig Thyssen
Makhaya Ntini
Ashwell Prince
Corbyn Dolley

Cape Cobras

Justin Kemp (c)
Andrew Puttick
Robin Peterson
Stiaan van Zyl
Justin Ontong
Henry Davids
Richard Levi
Rory Kleinveldt
Vernon Philander
Monde Zondeki
Francois Plaatjies
Alistair Gray

The Warriors have to be favourites to win the first leg - they're playing at home and won more games in the group stage than any other side. The only team to beat them was the Titans.

Their danger men are Colin Ingram, who's been racking up some impressive scores in limited overs this season; Ashwell Prince, who scored his maiden limited overs ton in the MTN40 final; Garnett Kruger, who's had a good season with the ball; and my player of the MTN40 - Rusty Theron.

The Cobras have been patchy all season - their best batsman has been Herschelle Gibbs, and he's only played two games. Everybody else has chipped in, but nobody has been consistently impressive, although Richard Levi has done some huge hitting down the order.

They are the defending champs and were semi-finalists in the inaugural CLT20, but they're going to have to come up with something special from someone to win this first leg.

They do have a secret weapon, should they choose to use him: Alistair Gray, who is currently pencilled in as 12th Man. Give that man a walk-on and let's SEE some shit.

At least not everything is riding on this first leg - the losers get another crack at it. But you really, really want to be ahead of the pressure going into Round 2.

The Pro20 final and the CLT20 are at stake. I'd say that's something worth playing for.

Live Scorecard (begins 18h00 SA time, 16h00 GMT)
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