The Titans have two more league games to complete, but after a weekend of superb cricket, they assured that they had already qualified for the semi-finals in the Momentum one-day series.

After their battling start in the series, in which they suffered three defeats in October, Henry Davids and his men suddenly look like serious contenders for the Momentum one-day title. Their brilliant five-wicket victory over the Cape Cobras last Friday also left the back door open for the men from Centurion to be eligible for a home final.

The Cobras are leading the series, but they should certainly by now have a psychological deficit against the Titans. The Western Cape side have so far in this series lost only two out of nine games and both defeats were against the Titans.

One of the hallmarks of Friday’s game against the Cape Cobras was the performance of the Titans stalwart all-rounder Albie Morkel. While Rob Walter has managed to phase in a number of talented young players to the Titans’ bigger squad, Morkel showed that experienced players like him were also still there to make a difference if needed. His 63 runs from 52 balls were by far the best of the day and it helped the Titans to clinch the match in the 44th over of their innings, after they bowled out the Cape Cobras earlier for 213 runs.

Morkel had earlier also played his part with the ball when he got rid of both the Cape Cobras’ dangerous openers. He caught Richard Levi lbw for 8 and he bowled Andrew Puttick for only 3. Sunday’s game against the Highveld Lions was shortened because of rain. The Titans batted first and in their 50 overs managed to score 255 runs thanks to an excellent 77 by another veteran, Jacques Rudolph.

According to the Duckworth-Lewis method, the Johannesburg team then had to score 149 runs in 20 overs. However, at the end of their twenty overs they could only manage to collect 136 runs, while they had lost 8 wickets in the process. While Grant Thomson (3 wickets) and JP de Villiers (2 wickets) were the star bowlers, the Titans’ bowlers actually all did their bit to tame the Highveld Lions batsmen.

While the Titans are already sure of their place in the playoffs of the series, with a little luck they can even directly qualify for a home final. They play against the Warriors this Friday (6 February) in Centurion and with the Eastern Cape side out of the competition and struggling at the bottom of the log, the Titans will certainly hope to obtain a bonus point victory. Strangely enough, they will at the same time hope that their opponents in Sunday’s final league match, the Dolphins, could manage to beat the Cobras on Friday.

This will enable the Titans to finish first on the log if they can beat the very same Dolphins on Sunday. A first place on the log means of course that they will qualify directly for the finals. If, however, the Cobras beat the Dolphins, the Titans will at least aim for a second place on the log to be able to host the semi-finals.