ZA Cricket

There’s a bit of unexpected drama in the One-Day Cup, division one, ahead of Wednesday’s qualifier between the Dolphins and the Titans.

Initially, the Warriors looked comfortably placed in second spot after wrapping up the first stage of the tournament. But things took a twist—they’ve slipped down to fourth, after Cricket South Africa noticed they hadn’t included enough Black African players in their lineup against the Dolphins on 16 February.

The Warriors had fielded all-rounder Andile Mokgakane and wicketkeeper-batsman Sinethemba Qeshile in their playing XI at Kingsmead. However, CSA’s transformation requirements state that each team must field a minimum of six players of colour, three of whom must be Black African. As a result, despite winning that match, the Warriors didn’t receive the points.

Dolphins CEO Heinrich Strydom explained, “Basically, the game we played against the Warriors—they didn’t adhere to the transformation requirements. CSA went through a process and confirmed the Warriors lose those points, and we gain them. We didn’t even flag it ourselves—CSA picked it up. Honestly, we would’ve preferred a quicker resolution since the match was nearly a month ago, but we didn’t initially notice it ourselves. CSA called the very next morning, alerting us they were investigating the matter.”

Now, all eyes turn to Kingsmead for Wednesday’s showdown between the Dolphins and Titans, with the winner set to face Boland in Saturday’s final in Paarl.

Defending champs Western Province, meanwhile, won’t be retaining their title this year, finishing at the bottom of the standings.

Here’s how things stand heading into the knockout stages:

One-Day Cup, division one points table

Position	Team	Won	Lost	No-result	Points
1	Boland	5	1	1	25
2	Dolphins	4	2	1	23
3	Titans	4	2	1	21
4	Warriors	4	2	1	16
5	Knights	3	3	1	16
6	Lions	2	4	1	10
7	North West	2	5	0	9
8	Western Province	1	6	0	5