Boland and Dolphins ready to square off for One Day Cup trophy

A battle between the Boland bowlers and the Dolphins batters is expected on Sunday when the two teams meet in the One Day Cup domestic cricket final, to be played at Boland Park in Paarl.

Both teams have followed very different paths to the 50-over domestic championship final.

While it initially seemed the Dolphins had been dumped out of the competition ahead of the playoffs, it was later confirmed the Warriors had been docked points for falling short of quotas by failing to inform Cricket South Africa they were fielding only two black African players in a round-robin match.

The Warriors subsequently slipped to fourth place in the table, missing out on a place in the knockout stages.

Receiving a boost, the Dolphins climbed from fourth to second in the standings (ahead of the Titans), earning a home semifinal, and they went on to beat the Titans by 65 runs in the first playoff in Durban on Wednesday.

The path to the final has been much smoother for Boland, who finished top of the round-robin table with five wins from seven games, qualifying automatically for the trophy contest.

Strong teams

On paper, however, the two sides are likely to be locked in a tight battle for the title.

The Dolphins batters and the Boland bowlers have been particularly impressive throughout the campaign.

Veteran Dolphins star JJ Smuts has shown remarkable consistency, making 382 runs in eight matches at an average of 47.75, including five half-centuries

Smuts is lying second in the run-scoring list, while Bryce Parsons (with 284 runs at an average of 40.57) is lying eighth.

Boland, on the other hand, have no batters among the top 20 scorers in the competition.

But with the ball, Boland will have an advantage. They have five bowlers among the top 20 wicket takers in the competition, led by spinner Imran Manack who has grabbed 15 scalps in seven matches at an average of 14.73.

While they don’t have the same depth as their opposition, the Dolphins will also back their bowling attack, spearheaded by the likes of Prenelan Subrayen (13 scalps) and Tristan Luus (12) who are also among the top wicket-takers in the competition.