Veteran Cobras seamer Charl Langeveldt believes that mental scarring after a heavy thrashing in the final of the CLT20 final just six weeks ago will count against the Lions when they face the Nashua Mobile Cape Cobras at the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium in the final of the Momentum One Day Cup on Friday.

“They got found out in the Champions league final and completely lost it, so I’m sure that will still be in the back of their mind”

Langeveldt mentioned that the Cobras experience will favour them on Friday. “If we bat first and put a decent total on the board, they may struggle to chase it. They don’t have too much experience. They have McKenzie, Bodi and De Bruyn, but that’s about it. Other than the champions league, they haven’t played in many other finals, we will be mentally stronger, we’ve played in a lot of finals and have won trophies. They haven’t won a trophy in a few years”

Speaking on Tuesday, he said “Even though we playing at the Wanderers, I still think we are favourites and have a better side, it is a final though, so guys like Quinton De Kock or Neil McKenzie can win the match for them”. He continued “We probably 70-30 favourites to win because of our batting, we have a better batting line-up than they do”

Langeveldt, 38, admitted there was “disappointment” in the Cobras camp that so many of the players who had contributed to the team’s passage to the final would now be missing out on a place in the final as national players became available.

“We understand that it’s a team game and it’s about winning trophies”, Langeveldt said. “But there certainly is frustration for guys like Andrew Puttick who was going to sit out before Graham Smith got injured in the nets, but as a team, we spoke about the Protea players coming back, so we all understand and know that the fans want to see national players”

“It’s good for the sponsors, Momentum, too. The reason they put money into the game is to bring the fans into the ground, and Protea players will bring them in”

The Momentum One Day Cup concludes on Friday, with the match scheduled to start at 15:00. A reserve day has been set aside for Saturday, should the match be affected by the weather.