NO JANE NO GAME FOR THE VIPER, MET Y’S JA, DIE KAAP WAS N BIETJIE SWAAR VIR KZN MENSE
Chelsea 0-3 Man City, Hawkeye 2-0 Paul (4-1, 4-0), Yacoob 0-2 Mabuti (4-0, 4-0), well it is mid-August and even the weather is confused. Some call it change of season or something along those lines but maybe the public protector needs to open an inquest. Did Paul’s hopes of winning the BPL just go up in smoke? I must say that losing to Vishen somewhat echoes far and wide and attracts all sorts of trouble from everywhere. Last season the Dish beat Charl and the flood gates opened up. Charl went on to lose 3 more thereafter and the curtain was immediately pulled down on the part of winning the title. I don’t know what happened to Paul but I guess there is a very thin line between almost did and didn’t. The Gentleman could have beaten the Dish had he not missed those two black balls but whoever snoozes definitely loses. Yulan Hawkeye Moley Govender never takes any prisoners and Saturday was no exception. This season and we might as well start engraving his name on the trophy, uhmm wait a minute there is Yazeed Salie with an Ace up his sleeves, met Y’s Ja. Ace pulled the handbrake on the runaway Hawk. Year in and year out Yulan is always the man to beat and a marvel to watch, he is hungry for glory and he is forever on a mission to reach new heights. Losing to Hawkeye is normal but losing 4-1 and 4-0 is something else, especially if your name is Paul Bennett. The age and gravity defying Hawk soared so high Paul was but a tiny fragment of his usual self and all the Hawk had to do was descend for the easy pickings. The Cape of Good Hope has Yazeed Salie, very few might know him and only a handful might consider him as a threat, now that’s his secret weapon; he is always the underdog and he destroys from down under without smiling or showing any emotion of course. Ace played Kyle who was without Jane (the python) on Saturday and narrowly won the match 2-1 after the Viper scared him a little in the first set. Kyle was always going to struggle in the Cape without Jane and the Cappies dove in and made sure they took advantage but I have to commend the young man for hacking the BPL system, he understands the importance of winning at least a set even if he goes on and loses the match, he went on to lose to Paul on Sunday but once again he won the first set. Ace was not done yet, he had a score to settle with Yulan who had on Saturday blown Paul to debris, Yazeed proved many doubters wrong and convincingly won 4-3 and 4-2 against the mighty Hawk. Well done Ace, not only are you the new number one on the log, but you have also earned the Sheriff’s Toast of the week. Looking at the log one can only stop and marvel at how the Viper is sitting pretty at 3rd position, he accumulated 6 points (As much as winning a match) although he lost both his matches, Hawkeye won against Paul and accumulated 7 points (1 point better than Kyle). The BPL harbors only the Crème de la Crème in the business and no one is invincible, if Ace goes on and wins it, you should know that he worked hard for it and he deserves it. Let’s say Ace didn’t win the double, which he did, and let’s suppose he isn’t good, which he is, and what if there is more where that superb performance came from, some of you would want to brush this week’s performance aside and are already thinking what Yazeed is doing in pole position. Well I think you’d better get used to it, he might just be there to stay.
The First Division was a great example why the supporters are very important in this game, home ground advantage has very big influence in many a player’s game, all the First Division’s games were won by the hosts this weekend. Sylvester and Lenny won both their matches, Sylvester beat Deon Gumz Daniels on Saturday and Leenash on Sunday and vice versa for Lenny! The least said about Ishmael the better, I can’t even remember the last time the African Champ won any match this season, he is currently placed 7th with only 3 wins and 22 points from a possible 42, now that’s not the Ish that spectators and have become fond of; wake up Mr Mthethwa. Nico Erasmus continued his world class performance upsetting Ish 4-1 and 4-2 and retaining his number one spot. Thinking about it, Erasmus has personalized the number one position, he’s been there since the onset in essence.
Zaid Kara is struggling and that’s a fact, he lost 4-0, 4-2 on Saturday to Thami and 4-0, 4-3 to Yacoob on Sunday and he remains with only 1/5 wins. This week alone he and Yacoob gave away two bonus points each and this altered the log drastically. Mabuti dug dip and secured 14 much needed points to go only one point shy of Yacoob who is still number one. The Robot fell hard to Mabuti, so hard it sent shock waves that registered on the Richter scale, it is really amazing how quickly things change in the BPL, one moment the guy has 100% wins and then loses 4-0 in both sets in his very first loss, when I saw the scorecard my first thought was that perhaps Coobie didn’t pitch and Mabuti claimed a walkover but no, he worked hard for those 8 points. Mabuti must have been in top form, he also won against Rea Vaya coming from a set down and stealing it at the very end, and he has won his last four matches in a row after losing in the first week to Donovan De Doncker. The race is wide open and it is getting hot in the Second Division with the top 3 guys having lost only one match each.
THE BPL NEVER DISAPPOINTS!!!
