There is everything to play for at both ends of the 4-Day Series log when the final round of the league stage starts on Thursday.
Even though the Central Gauteng Lions comfortably lead the eight-team standings and appear to have one foot in the final with 110.14 points, they too will be feeling some nerves as they enter round eight.
The Johannesburg-based side travels to Bloemfontein to face a desperate Free State Knights team at the Mangaung Oval – the sixth-placed hosts knowing they have to win to save themselves from relegation.
For Russell Domingo’s Lions, the equation is simple: Win and they will book their ticket to next week’s first-class final to be played over five days. Anything less than a win will, however, open the door for the chasing pack of the Northerns Titans, KZN Dolphins, Western Province and Boland.
Should the Lions draw, the second-placed Titans (94.10) and third-placed Dolphins (91.50) could leapfrog them by winning and earning enough bonus points.
The Centurion-based outfit welcome Boland, while the Dolphins, recently crowned One-Day Cup champions, travel to Gqeberha to play the EP Warriors.
If the Lions lose on their trip to Free State then even fourth-placed WP (88.84), who are away at the North West Dragons in Potchefstroom, and Boland (85.96) in fifth will be in the mix should they manage substantial wins.
Only the top two teams after the regular season will qualify for the 10-14 April final that will be hosted by the regular-season winners.
Meanwhile, the battle at the bottom of the table is a tense one with the Knights and Warriors seemingly in the biggest danger of relegation to Division 2.
The Free Staters need to gain two log positions and finish at least fourth in the table to avoid relegation. To do this, their only option is to beat the log-leading Lions. However, this too may be out of their hands if two of the Titans, Dolphins, WP and Boland win their games.
JP Triegaardt’s charges could finish ahead of any of those teams with a substantial bonus-point triumph and defeats or low bonus-point draws trio.
If the Knights do manage to get to fourth spot then the Warriors are the team that would be relegated. The Gqeberha-based outfit must win with substantial bonus points and hope the Dragons lose with few bonus points to get ahead of them.
Should this scenario play out, then the Warriors and Dragons will finish on eight promotion-relegation points, with the former placed higher due to better position on the first-class table.
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There is one other unlikely scenario where Western Province could still be relegated – if they fall to seventh with a heavy defeat and heavy swing of results in favour of their rivals.
The race for individual honours is also set to go down to the wire with the top-four run-scorers – Lesego Senokwane (559), Jordan Hermann (524), George Linde (521) and Grant Roelofsen (516) – separated by just 43 runs.
Amongst the bowlers, Shaun von Berg (34) is marginally ahead of fellow spinner Prenelan Subrayen (32), with seamer Beyers Swanepoel (29) third.
Round 8 fixtures (3-6 April)
EP Warriors vs KZN Dolphins
Free State Knights vs Central Gauteng Lions
Northerns Titans vs Boland
North West Dragons vs Western Province
Photo: Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images
