The takeaways from the Momentum One-day Cup

The domestic One-day Cup is hurtling towards its business end as Cricket South Africa aims to complete the fixtures by the end of the month.

An intriguing logjam has emerged in the top three – the Dolphins, Titans and Cape Cobras – but the rest are trailing by quite a substantial margin.

Nonetheless, the lessons and insights have been plentiful.

The tale of two men on the “endangered list”

Pieter Malan seemed to be steadily drifting towards the “wasted talent” category a few years ago.

The 28-year-old opening batsmen had been one of the key players for the national U-19 squad in 2008’s World Cup – Wayne Parnell, Rilee Rossouw and Reeza Hendricks were teammates – but didn’t manage to make the grade at the Titans.

He went to England to ply his trade a various English clubs with a fair amount of success yet couldn’t crack the nod at a county.

When he came back, Malan seemed to have timed his return atrociously.

CSA had announced aggressive quota requirements, leaving essentially only five starting spots for white players.

That didn’t deter him.

Malan scored buckets of runs for Western Province in the semi-pro setup and was rewarded with a franchise contract for the Cobras.

Now he’s the leading run scorer in the tournament to date – 323 runs at 54 with four fifties in six innings.

Rassie van der Dussen might be a regular at the Highveld Lions but the return of regular skipper Stephen Cook meant he was on wobbly ground unless he could adapt.

With his opening spot taken, the elegant striker has moved to the middle order and the results have been fantastic.

Van der Dussen is only two runs (321) behind Malan and has a better average of 64.

Clearly, hard work gets rewarded.

The Warriors’ underrated duo

Sisanda Magala continues to be one of the canniest limited overs bowlers in franchise cricket. (Photo by Michael Sheehan/Gallo Images)

Life after influential coach Mali Maketa hasn’t been easy for the Eastern Cape franchise as five defeats from seven matches would attest.

But the Warriors have always been able to produce handy seamers and in the case of Sisanda Magala and Aya Gqamane, they can brag with a bowling duo that’s collected 28 wickets between them.

The burly Magala has for the last two seasons been one of the more consistent players on the franchise circuit but it’s the mercurial Gqamane that’s added value.

Short of stature, the bustling seamer has been used in an interesting role by captain Jon-Jon Smuts.

In various games, he’s been used as late as second change but his ability to take wickets in mid-innings and at the death has stifled batting opponents – almost as a surprise element.

It’s a great weapon that isn’t being capitalised on though.

‘Old man’ Albie remains priceless

Albie Morkel: valuable as always. (Photo by Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images)

He’s 36.

He contributes with the ball when needed without taking work away from his frontline bowlers.

And he’s averaging 70 with the bat in the middle-order.

It’s kind off easy to see why the Titans still rely on one of their legends.

Knights have a glaring lack of depth

Tough times for the Knights. (Photo by Johan Pretorius/Gallo Images)

Granted, Nic Boje’s troops have actually tied two of their matches in this campaign but they could’ve lost them too.

Either way, the Knights have looked really thin and haven’t won a game yet.

The batting has relied heavily on the dynamic David Miller, who’s had to play less aggressively to keep things together.

Duanne Olivier has bowled well but it doesn’t help that experienced men like Marchant de Lange and Ryan McLaren have misfired.

Given their resources, that’s potentially a death knell to their campaign.

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