Cape Town - Injured Proteas and Cape Cobras bowler Vernon Philander has criticised the Cape franchise’s decision making during their RAM SLAM T20 playoff loss to the Dolphins in Durban on Wednesday.
MATCH REPORT: Dolphins v Cobras
Chasing 179 for victory, the Cobras were seemingly cruising into the final.
With opener Richard Levi blitzing 85 from just 43 balls, the Cobras went into the last five overs of their chase needing just a run a ball with seven wickets in hand to win the playoff.
Although Levi had departed by that stage, with plenty of batting to come the Cobras looked certain victors, but they went on to lose five wickets for the addition of just 19 runs to grab defeat from the jaws of victory.
Questionable shot-making from experienced campaigners like Andrew Puttick, Rory Kleinveldt, Justin Ontong and Robin Peterson eventually proved the undoing of the Capetonians.
Philander, who is currently laid low by injury, expressed his thoughts on the Cobras’ performance via his Twitter account after the game:
That was some proper poor decision making by the #cobras. Injustice to a fantastic innings by @RichardLevi88. Well done to #dolphins.
— Vernon Philander (@VDP_24) December 9, 2015
The Dolphins will now travel to Centurion to take on the Titans in Saturday’s final (18:00 start).
Philander, meanwhile, will miss the Proteas’ opening two Tests against England due to an ankle injury. He tore ligaments in his ankle when playing soccer in a warm-up shortly before South Africa’s second Test against India in Bangalore last month.