CSA 4-Day Series Preview: Titans seek redemption, underdogs eye upsets

No one could have scripted the 2024-25 4-Day series final better. The contest between the DP World Lions and the Momentum Multiply Titans produced one of the most spellbinding draws in red ball cricket for many years.

The Lions entertained viewers with classy batting as they mounted a first innings total of 413/7, before Codi Yusuf bagged a four-wicket haul as the Titans folded for 123 in their reply.

The men from Centurion looked dead and buried when they were asked to follow-on and were rescued by a defiant innings by teenage sensation Lhuan-dre Pretorius, who scored 114 off 209 deliveries to steer the Titans to safety and deny the Lions full rights to the trophy.

The co-defending champions, the Titans, will begin their quest for total ownership of the cup with a match against Goldrush Boland on 25 September.

The fixture is one of three pencilled in to kick-start the 2025-26 season, alongside ties featuring the Warriors and WSB Western Province, and the Eastvaal Renault Dragons and the Tuskers.

FAVOURITES AND UNDERDOGS

Unlike the Lions and the Titans, who look like the teams to beat, again, this season, Ahmed Amla’s Tuskers and Craig Alexander’s Dragons will be shooting for the stars, while aiming for the moon.

It is unlikely that the KwaZulu Natal side will dominate Division 1 as they did in Division 2, where they collected all three titles, despite bulking up their bowling resources with the additions of Wayne Parnell, Hardus Viljoen and Daryn Dupavillon.

The Dragons, whom they will joust with at the JB Marks Oval in their season opener, will be using the contest as a ladder to extricate them from the bottom to the middle of the table. The Dragons endured a winless red ball season in 2024-25, finished in sixth place, and need many things to go their way for them to challenge for top honours.

TEAMS AND THE FORMAT

One of those things will be a favourable schedule, and the Dragons might count themselves lucky because they have their toughest encounters in the first round of matches.

The big four teams: the Titans, Western Province, the Lions and the Hollywoodbets Dolphins will be handicapped by the absence of their Proteas stars in the first round of matches. The Dragons have dates with the Titans, the Lions, and Western Province in October

Last season’s surprise package, Boland, also finds themselves with a favourable fixture list. The Paarl side, which is built for the conditions at Boland Park, will play four of their seven games in front of their home crowd.

They are one of three outfits that have four home games this season, alongside the two KZN sides, the Dolphins and the Tuskers.

NOTABLE PLAYER MOVEMENTS BETWEEN TEAMS

The Lions’ campaign during the 2024-25 season was built around a cohesive pace bowling attack that had Lutho Sipamla, Codi Yusuf, and Tshepo Moreki.

The tripartite attack was broken with Moreki’s move to Western Province. Moreki’s move bolstered a bowling attack that was heavily dependent on left arm spinner Kyle Simmonds for wickets.

The Lions filled the hole left by Moreki’s departure with Beyers Swanepoel, who left the Warriors. Swanepoel’s arrival will do enough to plug the gap left by Moreki. The seamer was the Warriors’ spearhead and losing him left a gaping hole in an inexperienced bowling attack.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom for Robin Petersen’s outfit. The Warriors recruited well in the winter, bringing Matthew Boast, Gideon Peters, and Kerwin Mungroo on board. The trio’s different attributes make the Warriors a better rounded team.

The Titans brought in Lesego Senokwane, who scored one of the three double hundreds recorded in the 2024-25 season, to replace Joshua van Heerden who joined Rory Kleinveldt’s project at Western Province.

TOP BATSMEN/BOWLERS TO LOOK OUT FOR

All eyes will be on the SA20’s most expensive player, Dewald Brevis. The 22-year-old finished the 2024-25 season with the second-highest run tally and has taken that form to the Proteas where he is shining brightly in the middle order.

Jordan Hermann was the only batter to breach the 600-run barrier last season. The Warriors opener has shown that he is still in good form with a pair of centuries in two 50-over matches against New Zealand A. The left-hander followed that up with two half-centuries in the red ball series against the Kiwis.

Marquess Ackermann and Zubayr Hamza are other two batters to watch out for.

Ackerman scored a brilliant double century against West Indies A in the Caribbean and followed that up with a pair of 50s against New Zealand A in the red ball series.

Hamza, on the other hand, was the most consistent batter in 2024-25 with five half-centuries and a single century. The Lions man showed his class with a wonderful 124 against New Zealand A when everyone else failed.

Swanepoel will be the bowler to keep an eye on. He had the best average and strike rate among the top 10 wicket-takers last season. The pacer was the highest ranked seamer with 29 scalps to his name.

Prenelan Subrayen and Kyle Simmonds are the two spinners most likely to dominate the competition this year. Like Swanepoel, they were among the top four wicket-takers in 2024-25.

WHAT THEY SAID

Russel Domingo wasn’t the first, nor was he the last coach to express his ‘disappointment’ at the paltry number of games teams play. The Lions’ coach

highlighted that players, who do not play enough matches in a seven-match schedule, are at the risk of playing even fewer matches when one factors in abandoned ties and fixtures beleaguered by rain interruptions.

“We play far too little cricket… We play seven four-day games, we had one game write-off, so we're actually ending up playing six games a season. So, it's far too little domestic cricket. We had a one-day game write-off, so that means we played six one-day games and six four-day games.

"You're not going to have enough time to develop players to play at the highest level and that's a big concern,” he told Sports Boom earlier in the year.