Cape Town – Hashim Amla returned to Cape Cobras team at Boland Park and made an immediate impact to maintain his side's impressive run in the RamSlam T20 Challenge.
The Proteas Test captain struck an unbeaten 56 (51 balls, 5x4) and shared an unbroken 87-run partnership for the second wicket with Dane Vilas (43 off 38 balls, 4x4) to guide the Cobras to an easy nine-wicket victory with 11 balls to spare over the Warriors.
If this was a boxing match, the referee would have called it off sooner as the Warriors struggled to build any momentum with either bat or ball.
The visitors from the Eastern Cape struggled in their batting innings after being reduced to 29/3 in the seventh over. Dale Steyn (1/19) removed Jon-Jon Smuts (10), GF Linde clean bowled Craig Kieswetter (15) and Kieron Pollard had Colin Ingram caught by his opposite number Justin Ontong for two.
These setbacks left the Warriors with a mountain to climb, and they actually did rather well, with the Capetonians Ryan Bailey and Yaseen Vallie rebuilding the innings with a 95-run stand for the fourth wicket. Vallie (39 off 38 balls, 2x4) was the stability as Bailey (62 off 41 balls, 5x4, 1x6) played a few more shots, especially off Linde's left-arm spin bowling, to give the innings some sort of respectability.
The Warriors knew they needed early breakthroughs if they were to make any sort of impact in this game, but it was not forthcoming as Amla and Richard Levi put on 48 for the first wicket within the first six powerplays overs.
And even when Levi was caught by Rusty Theron off medium-pacer Sisanda Magala for 22, the door still remained shut with the arrival of Dane Vilas at the crease at number three.
Intent on making the most of his promotion up the batting order, the Cobras wicket-keeper maintained the early impetus as he and Amla ate into the target without taking any undue risks.
Amla is a past-master at timing a run-chase and handed out a few lessons in manipulating an attack. At no point was he perturbed by the run-rate as he simply accumulated the runs through running well between the wickets and punishing the bad ball when it was on offer.
Vilas, meanwhile, assumed the role of aggressor with a couple powerful strikes down the ground and through mid-wicket to ensure his team would get over the line without much fuss.
It was fitting that Amla hit the winning runs when he struck a delightful lofted on-drive to ensure the Cobras would finish the league phase with only one defeat in their 10 round-robin games ahead of next week's final at Newlands. – Sapa