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Too little too late for Titans
Rain prevented the Titans over the past weekend to play themselves into a position where they have a chance to reach the semi-finals of the Ram Slam T20 Cup.
Although it is clear that the Titans made a serious effort to pull themselves together in the Ram Slam T20 tournament this past weekend, their chance to reach the semi-finals are for all practical purposes destroyed.
The men from Centurion were only able to achieve one victory this past weekend, while their other game bizarrely ended in a draw.
After five consecutive defeats since the series started on 2 November, the Titans had to come up with a dramatic fight-back effort if they wanted to save their campaign in the series.
The Titans’ weekend initially started very good when they beat the log leaders, the Highveld Lions, by 27 runs on Friday night in Benoni. Unfortunately rain caused the Duckworth&Lewis system to be used to determine the outcome of the match and therefore it was extremely difficult for the Titans to hunt a much needed bonus point.
Rain and the Duckworth&Lewis system again had the final say in the Titans’ game against the Warriors at Centurion on Sunday. The game was shortened to eight overs per side. The Warriors won the toss and their captain, Colin Ingram, chose to field. The Titans therefore batted first and after eight overs they had 79 runs for the loss of five wickets.
In almost bizarre circumstances the Warriors achieved exactly the same total in their eight overs and they too only lost five wickets. Therefore the match finished in a draw. For the Titans, it was a disaster, because a win with a bonus point was the only outcome they wanted.
The consequence of these results is that the Titans’ participation in the rest of the Ram Slam T20 series is indeed only of academic interest. They need three bonus-point wins to remain only theoretical in the race.
It would therefore be advisable if the management of the team rather used the last three games in the series to find the right combinations in the team and also to possibly think again about the leadership. In both the weekend’s two games, the West Indian, Darren Sammy, did not contribute much with the ball or the bat and more questions are asked about the wisdom of the team management to entrust the captaincy to him.
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