The CSA 4-Day Series resumes this week as it heads for the final straight, with the DP World Lions men's team in the best position to top the log and host the final in defence of the title they won in such thrilling fashion last season.
Our DP World Lions travel to the winelands of the Western Cape to take on the Boland side, with #ThePrideOfJozi currently topping the standings by 12.72 points as the competition goes into the last three weeks of round-robin play.
The fourth-placed Bolanders will be fired up after unfortunately missing out of the One-Day Cup crown after dominating the early stages, and they are still firmly in the running in the red-ball tournament, trailing the DP World Lions by 22.54 points.
But #ThePrideOfJozi are unbeaten in four-day cricket this season, winning three of their four matches so far, and they want to keep the chasing pack well at bay when they return to long-format action from Thursday in Paarl.
"There's a lot of cricket still to be played in the competition, but we are in a good position, leading the Momentum Multiply Titans by a dozen points and then the Knights and Goldrush Boland a bit further behind," head coach Russell Domingo says.
"We have much the same group that has played all season travelling to Paarl, the batsmen have all been batting well in the middle, even though our achilles heel in the One-Day Cup was not scoring hundreds, while on the bowling front we have Lutho Sipamla back."
THE SPIN IN PAARL
Spin always plays a big role in Paarl and our DP World Lions will be taking three spinners with them to Boland: the ever-reliable, accurate orthodox left-arm of Bjorn Fortuin, backed by two legspinners in Junaid Dawood and Nqaba Peter.
But the weather in die Pêrel at this time of year can be extremely hot and dry and that could bring reverse-swing, at one time considered a pariah skill in the game and now threatened due to two new balls being used in 50-over cricket, into play.
"A second spinner is certainly a consideration and we may even play three," Domingo says. "We'll have to assess conditions. But reverse-swing can also come into it down there and your fast bowlers are important too because the pitch can be a bit up-and-down. We don't often get reverse-swing conditions, but it is a skill our pacemen need to get into their games."
The great moral of the unsuccessful One-Day Cup campaign was that hundreds win matches and the batting line-up will be eager to rectify the fact that the top six has only scored one century in four-day cricket this season: Dominic Hendricks' epic 161 not out against WSB Western Province at the DP World Wanderers Stadium. Fortuin has behaved like a proper batsman, though, by lashing two centuries in the lower-order.
Mitchell van Buuren is back after only playing one four-day match before breaking his finger, as is Hendricks after playing for the Free State Knights on loan for the 50-over competition.
"Dom has had some valuable time out in the middle with the Knights, scoring over 200 runs while on loan, Mitch has scored three fifties in his last five innings in the One-Day Cup, Zubayr Hamza gets past 30 just about every time he bats and Connor Esterhuizen has been looking good too," Domingo says.
The DP World Lions have been a superior four-day side to Boland based on log positions over the last two seasons, and in #ThePrideOfJozi's previous red-ball match in Paarl they scored 421 and then bundled the hosts out for just 93, forcing them to follow-on before bad weather denied them victory.
From Thursday they will look to justify that favourites' tag.