Cape Town - The Cape Cobras head into their crucial Ram Slam T20 clash with TheTitans at PPC Newlands on Friday without their best two spinners after George Linde joined Robin Peterson on the injured list.
Linde fractured a finger on his bowling hand during the five-wicket win over the Dolphins on Sunday, and so the Cobras have been forced to call on Siya Simetu for their two games this weekend.
The left-arm spinner was a regular fixture in the Cobras side during the 2013/14 RAM SLAM, but did not feature at all last season and will need to adapt to the pace of the competition quickly.
The defending champions currently sit third with 12 points from five games, but need to rein in the Titans after their bonus-point victory over the Dolphins on Wednesday put them top of the table with 21 points.
“This is a key game - we need to take some points off the Titans now that they’re top of the log. We need to make sure that we’re ticking,” said Cobras coach, Paul Adams.
“We haven’t had the perfect game yet, and that’s what the players are striving for. We keep presenting that in front of them and hopefully it comes as we get close to the end of the league phase.”
A big part of the Titans’ success during their winning streak, which stretched to five games on Wednesday, has been their ability to think on their feet.
That may be a vital asset in Friday evening’s clash with the forecast suggesting that light rain may play a role at some stage.
“We’ve played on some funny wickets so far - some turners and some up-and-down wickets - so we’ve had to adapt our bowling plans on the field and I think that’s one thing we’ve done well so far,” reflected Titans captain, Albie Morkel. “We’ve assessed the situations quite nicely.”
Lungi Ngidi missed Wednesday’s game because he was writing exams, but has joined the Titans squad for the game against the Cobras.