Adams wants Cobras to play ‘old-school cricket’

Zaahier Adams

CAPE COBRAS coach Paul Adams has called on his team to play “old-school cricket” in their remaining two Sunfoil Series fixtures. It has been a frustrating fortnight for Adams, who watched in disbelief as his batsmen succumbed to the Highveld Lions two weeks ago before falling to even greater lows against the Dolphins this past weekend.

Careless batting has seen the entire Cobras line-up accumulate just 766 runs in their last four innings, with a top score of 224 in the first innings against the Lions. Since then, it has been 169, 206 and 167 – the latter being 15 runs shy of the 182 required to beat the Dolphins. In this horror period, only one Cobras batsman, Qaasim Adams, managed a half-century.

It would have been easier to digest for Paul Adams if the opposition’s bowling was of a high standard, but instead, his batsmen simply “got in and got out”.

“It has been disappointing. We had a golden opportunity this past weekend to entrench our position, but we simply let it slip through our fingers. The break has come at a good time for all of us to assess and improve our gameplans. Fix what is wrong, regroup and simply return to playing old-school cricket,” coach Adams told the Cape Times yesterday.

“It is important, though, to realise we have played good cricket this season to get us into the position we are.

“We are still top of the table (until this weekend’s fixture between the Lions and Titans), and must look back at what got us there. It was hard work, patience and focusing on short-term goals instead of looking too far ahead.”

Adams’s problems does not end with trying to get his players’ mindset back in tune before the crucial fixture against the Titans starting on January 31 in Benoni.

Promising fast-medium bowler Lizaad Williams will be unavailable due to his junior international commitments for the South Africa Under-19 side in the “Test” series against England.

Richard Levi has picked up a grade-one hamstring strain, although Adams hopes the attacking right-hander will recover in time to play for the WP Amateur side in their Twenty20 fixture on Sunday.