Africa-Press – Namibia. DEFENDING champions WHS Old Boys and Wanderers will be the firm favourites when they take on CCD and Trustco United respectively in the semifinals of the Cricket Premier League this weekend.
Old Boys and Wanderers have once again dominated the league and finished well ahead on the log on conclusion of the group matches last weekend.
Wanderers topped the log on 26 points, followed by Old Boys on 22, CCD on 14 and United on 10, while MR24/7 Welwitschia narrowly missed out on the playoff spots after finishing fifth on eight points.
Wanderers host United in the first semifinal tomorrow and will head into the match in confident mood after beating United by eight wickets last weekend.
United, however, provided much stiffer resistance in their first round encounter at Wanderers on 15 January when they went down by two wickets, and if they can provide a similar performance they might have a chance of an upset.
United captain Lohan Louwrens and their national all-rounder Michael van Lingen have been their star performers this season, but if they want to beat Wanderers they will have to receive much more support from the rest of the squad.
Van Lingen is currently fourth on the top run-scorers ranking with 215 runs at an average of 43,00, and Louwrens sixth with 182 runs at an average of 26,00, but none of their other batsmen feature amongst the top 20.
Louwrens and Van Lingen have also been their stand-out bowlers, with Louwrens second on the rankings with 12 wickets and Van Lingen 11th with nine wickets, while their only other bowler in the top 20 is Damon Coetzee, in 16th position with seven wickets.
Wanderers have a star-studded side with several national players, but despite topping the log, they have not been at their best.
Their national spinner Bernard Scholtz tops the bowling rankings with 12 wickets at an average of 7,33, but their only other bowler amongst the top ten is ninth-placed Karl Birkenstock with nine wickets at an average of 15,11.
They also don’t feature prominently amongst the top batsmen, with only eighth-placed Niko Davin (169 runs at an average of 33,80) and 10th-placed JJ Smit (157 runs at an average of 39,25) amongst the top ten.
However, with other stalwarts like Michau du Preez, captain Nicolaas Scholtz, JC Balt, and Dewald Nell to call upon, they should start the match as firm favourites on their home turf.
WHS Old Boys will be even stronger favourites to beat CCD in the second semifinal at the WHS field on Sunday.
They thrashed CCD in their two league matches this season – by 248 runs on 4 December when they amassed 321/5 with Craig Williams scoring 184 runs, and then skittling CCD out for only 73 runs, and by 163 runs on 29 January, when they scored 365/6 (Williams 83, Zane Green 129) and then dismissed CCD for 202.
Old Boys have strength in depth and also dominate the individual rankings with five of their batsmen and three of their bowlers amongst the top ten.
Williams, with 339 runs at an average of 84,75, JP Kotze (259 runs at an average of 43,17) and Green (222 runs at an average of 37,00) are the top three batsmen, while Donovan Zealand with 11 wickets, and Zhivago Groenewald and Tangeni Lungameni with nine wickets each are amongst the top ten bowlers.
They can also call on national players like Gerhard Erasmus and Ruben Trumpelmann, while others like Malan Kruger, Zhivago Groenewald and the upcoming youngsters Gerhard Janse van Rensburg and Divan La Cock have all contributed to their success.
CCD have a strong team on paper, but they have not lived up to their potential and even suffered a 24-run defeat to Welwitschia on their home ground last weekend.
Their batting has been their downfall, with only Stephen Baard featuring amongst the top 10 with 159 runs at an average of 26,50, although Mauritius Ngupita (11 wickets), Nicol Loftie-Eaton (10) and Ben Shikongo (nine wickets) all feature amongst the top ten bowlers.
These bowlers can all swing a match, but if they hope to beat Old Boys, other batsmen like Loftie-Eaton, Pikky Ya France, Joshuan Julius and Ramon Wilmot will have to rise to the occasion.
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