Cobras face spin test on slow pitches

The Cape Cobras won their second Champions League warm-up game outside Bangalore on Tuesday by five wickets but their batsmen appeared to battle against local spinners.

And with slow bowlers such as captain Anil Kumble and Roelof van der Merwe in their ranks, tomorrow's opponents the Royal Challengers Bangalore, will no doubt target this area of the game.

The Cobras, chasing a target of 108 against a Karnataka XI, got home in the penultimate over, with JP Duminy (28 not out off 30 balls) and Herschelle Gibbs (27 off 23 balls) making the major contributions.

Local spinners C Raghavendra (3-22) and Ryan Ninan (2-24) slowed the momentum in the middle overs, but a composed Duminy kept the scoreboard ticking over and guided the Cobras home.

All along coach Shukri Conrad had said a key element of the team's preparation would be acclimatising to local conditions and the Cobras made sure to include plenty of spinners in their net sessions leading up to the two practice matches, the first of which ended in a tie.

Home ground Newlands has been known to serve up slow pitches, but lower bounce, hot weather and a completely different crowd environment are factors the team will have to deal with.

Gibbs and Duminy are two batsmen who are at home against spin, though, and if they get going at the top of the order in Thursday's opening match of the tournament, they could set the Cobras up nicely.

Duminy, after his enthralling Test debut against Australia in 2008, outscored Mumbai Indians teammate Sachin Tendulkar by eight runs overall in the 2009 Indian Premier League in South Africa, notching five half-centuries.

Gibbs was a single run behind Duminy's 372 in that tournament, held in April and May, and importantly, one of his four fifties came in the final, won by the Deccan Chargers against Bangalore.

Both Duminy and Gibbs will play in the inaugural Champions League in the colours of South Africa's Pro20 champions the Cobras, though.

Apart from this duo, the Cobras have plenty of batting talent, perhaps not known to the wider world, which could step up to the plate on the big stage. The first round of the event comprises two pool games (for the Cobras it's Thursday's match and Saturday's game against the Otago Volts in Hyderabad) and the key would be to start well.

In Tuesday's game at the Jain International Residential School grounds, the Cobras' best bowler was slow left-armer Claude Henderson, who claimed 3-6 in his four overs. All-rounder Vernon Philander took two and Charl Langeveldt, Justin Ontong, Rory Kleinveldt and Duminy one each.

Another all-too-familiar bowling threat lurking is speedster Dale Steyn, who grabbed 4-14 in Bangalore's 15-run win in a warm-up match yesterday. Rahul Dravid hit an undefeated 64 in a total of 145-4 for the Challengers.

Apart from Steyn, Vinay Kumar and Roelof van der Merwe took two wickets apiece.

Squads

Cape Cobras

Andrew Puttick (captain), JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Justin Ontong, Charl Langeveldt, Claude Henderson, Monde Zondeki, Vernon Philander, Henry Davids, Derek Brand, Francois Plaatjies, Ryan Canning, Rory Kleinveldt, Richard Levi, SA Engelbrecht

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Anil Kumble (captain), Rahul Dravid, Robin Uthappa, Jacques Kallis, Ross Taylor, Dale Steyn, Manish Pandey, Praveen Kumar, Virat Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Roelof van der Merwe, Mark Boucher, Vinay Kumar, Akhil Balachandra, Rajesh Bishnoi