No replacement for Philander yet

Stiaan van Zyl will step into the breach for JP Duminy in the Cape Cobras team to play the Dolphins in a SuperSport Series match at Newlands from Thursday, but Vernon Philander's replacement has yet to be decided.

Duminy and Philander will be off-limits to the Western Cape franchise because they are in South Africa's squad for the first Twenty20 international against the West Indies in Port Elizabeth on Sunday.

Van Zyl's return to the team is a given. In nine innings in this season's SuperSport Series, the 20-year-old has scored 300 runs, including two half-centuries, at an average of 42.85. Moreover, he has shown exactly the kind of guts and application that marks out players who succeed at this level.

Replacing all-rounder Philander is more complicated. "We'll either go with a specialist batsman in Dominic Telo or we'll give ourselves an additional spinning option by picking Alistair Gray," Cobras coach Shukri Conrad said on Monday.

Gray, of course, is an opening batsmen who comes with a useful sideline in leg spin.

The Dolphins could also have selection issues to resolve, what with a neck spasm having forced stalwart top-order batsman Doug Watson to take guard at No 11 in his team's drawn match against the Highveld Lions in Durban on Sunday.

The spasm is reportedly deep in his neck and could put him out of consideration for this week's match. "The physiotherapist says he could miss the game, but Dougie says he'll be fine," Dolphins coach Yashin Ebrahim said on Monday. "He's a (Maritzburg) College boy, so I'll believe him."

Ebrahim said Johann Louw had taken a knock on a knee against the Lions, but would be fit for Thursday.

The Dolphins came out on top by 47 runs against the Cobras two weeks ago, but that was on an under-prepared Pietermaritzburg pitch that will surely have little in common with the surface on which the teams will battle it out in Cape Town.

A draw with the Warriors in Paarl at the weekend means the Western Cape side are still looking for their first win of the season after six rounds of the SuperSport Series. They are second from bottom on the log, with this week's visitors in second place after three wins in six games.

"We're playing better cricket than our log position suggests," Conrad said. "But the Dolphins seem to have a knack for winning games."