Langeveldt, Gibbs take Cobras to Pro20 title

Gibbs set up the victory with his innings of 87 off 62 balls with four sixes and seven fours that represented more than half of the Cobras' total of 147. The rest of the batsmen contributed 60 runs between them with Justin Ontong's 21 being the second highest score.

Langeveldt then took 3/20 in his four overs including 2/4 in the penultimate over of the match that left the Diamond Eagles needing an almost impossible 27 runs off Vernon Philander's final over.

It gave Langeveldt 16 wickets in this season's competition and an economy rate of little more than six to the over which a lot of players would be happy to have in a 50 overs match, let alone at 20 overs level.

His mixture of change of pace, reverse swinging yorkers and the judicious use of the bouncer have made him the complete package.

It was the first time that the Cape Cobras had won the Standard Bank Pro20 and they are the fourth franchise to get their name on the trophy. The Diamond Eagles and the Nashua Titans have each won it twice while the bizhub Highveld Lions have also got their name on the trophy.

The Cape Cobras and the Diamond Eagles will now represent South Africa in the Champions League to be played in India in the second half of the year.

Not surprisingly Gibbs and Langveldt won the two Master Blaster awards for bowling and batting respectively. Had there been a fielding award it would have gone to JP Duminy who took an acrobatic catch of stunning brilliance on the boundary to dismiss Ryan Bailey.

Duminy and Graeme Smith will now join the rest of the Castle Test squad for the series against Australia starting at the Liberty Life Wanderers Stadium on Thursday.