Cobras desperate to break 17-match drought

The last time the Cape Cobras won a SuperSport Series match, Alan Dawson scored a half-century, Charl Willoughby was not yet a Kolpak player and Percy Sonn was alive and well.

That was in March last year, when they downed the Diamond Eagles by 10 wickets in Stellenbosch.

Since then the Cobras have gone 17 matches without success in the competition - unless we're counting the nine draws they had during that run.

It's a trend that Justin Kemp's team will be desperate to end when they take on the Dolphins at Newlands from Thursday.

That, at least, is the long and the short of it from their supporters' perspective. Cobras manager Russell Adams reckons the fans should not have to hang in there for too much longer.

"There's a lot of pressure coming from the public domain, as there should be, but I really feel as if that first win is around the corner," he said this week. "We're a much more competitive four-day team compared to last season."

In their first six matches this season, the Cobras have emerged with a first-innings lead just twice. Both times that advantage was fewer than 40 runs. By contrast, only one of their four first-innings deficits was marginal. The others were worth 173, 171 and 82 runs to their opponents.

The absence of JP Duminy and Vernon Philander from the match - they are in the South Africa squad for Sunday's Twenty20 international against the West Indies in Port Elizabeth - is unlikely to redress the balance.

However, Stiaan van Zyl is a more-than-capable replacement for Duminy, and either Dominic Telo or Alistair Gray will come in for all-rounder Philander.

Both Telo and Gray are batsmen, but the latter's leg-spin bowling boosts his case for winning a place.

The Dolphins are a quality outfit who have been in the top half of the log since the second round. They have been entrenched in second place for the past four rounds.

The KwaZulu-Natal outfit achieved the most recent of their three wins against the Cobras - by 47 runs - in Pietermaritzburg two matches ago. But the pitch was, shall we say, sporting and the outfield was uncut.

The last-placed Lions will try to knock the Eagles off the top of the standings in their match in Johannesburg, while it's the clash of the Titans and the Warriors in Centurion.