CSA One Day Cup gets underway: Four players to watch

The CSA One Day Cup competition starts on Friday as teams in both divisions battle it out in their respective sections over the next month for 50-over glory.

Some entertaining cricket is on the cards and a number of players will be looking to make their marks.

Here are four players aiming to set the competition alight in division one.

Pieter Malan

The unbelievable Pieter Malan is the form batsman in SA local cricket this season and the Boland Rocks captain will be aiming to lead his charges on another trophy run in the one-day competition.

Malan finished as the leading run-scorer in the CSA T20 competition, and just finished the CSA four-day series this week as the leading run-scorer, ending his campaign with an unbeaten 219.

Having led his team to the T20 title last month, he will be keen to take them on another successful run.

Tristan Stubbs

Warriors short-format star Tristan Stubbs will be eager to prove that he is not a flash in the pan by helping his team mount a challenge in the One Day Cup.

Stubbs burst onto the scene in brutal fashion during the domestic T20 competition and finished as the second-highest run-scorer, despite playing two fewer games than the players around him.

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But it was his amazing striking that people will want to see again, as he hammered an unbelievable 23 sixes in seven games, at a strike-rate of 183, including a highest score of 80 off just 31 balls, and many will hope he will pick up where he left off.

Dewald Brevis

SA’s most exciting up-and-coming youngster Dewald ‘Baby AB’ Brevis will be eager to cement his status as a future star.

The 18-year-old teen sensation, who rose to prominence at the U-19 World Cup and then impressed for the Titans in the CSA T20 competition, will be eager to build on his superb year so far.

He will not be available for the full One Day Cup, having signed for the Mumbai Indians in the IPL, but he will want to make a big impact and go into the IPL in form.

Sisanda Magala

Proteas all-rounder Sisanda Magala will have a major point to prove.

Having failed a recent fitness test for the Proteas, which resulted in him not being considered for the home ODI series against Bangladesh, Magala will want to show that he is ready and better than ever.

He has struggled for wickets lately, going without any scalps in his three recent T20 games or his most recent four-day match for the Lions, and he will be targeting a big One Day Cup effort to get back in form and on the Proteas radar.

Friday’s matches (1pm start)

North West Dragons v Western Province

Lions v Warriors

Titans v Rocks