Titans hurt their chances in Sunfoil series with defeat
After their defeat against the Cape Cobras last week, the Titans will have to win all three of their remaining games in the Sunfoil four day series if they still wants to stand a chance of winning the trophy.
The Titans seriously damaged their chances to win a second local trophy in the current season with their 170 runs defeat against the Cape Cobras in the Sunfoil four-day series in Paarl last week.
After their fine win over the Warriors in Port Elizabeth the previous week, Titans could have reduced the gap between them and the Highveld Lions drastically if they managed to beat the Cobras. Although there was no outcome in last week’s game between the Lions and Warriors, the men from Johannesburg nevertheless managed to increase their lead with another two points on the log.
After Justin Ontong won the toss for the Cape Cobras on Thursday, he elected to bat first. Only Mthokozisi Shezi (4) was not able to score double figures and by means of a good team effort the Capetonians managed to gather 308 runs in their first innings.
Thereon the Titans answered with a disappointing 175 runs. Captain Henry Davids (35) got the highest score in the innings but it was rather the two ducks and four single digits among the rest of the batsmen that caused the backlog. Thanks to an excellent 100* from Dane Vilas, the Cobras was able to record another good score (341) in their second innings which meant that Titans had to score 475 to win the game.
Practically it was possible, as they had more than a day’s play to their disposal to chase this score. Although Davids (77), Dean Elgar (79) and Van Buuren (59) did their best, they simply did not have enough support from the rest of their teammates to reach the target. There were another six single digits and a duck on the men of Centurion’s scorecard when they were eventually bowled out for 304.
Davids and his team now have a week break, in which they probably will work hard on a strategy to try to win all three of their remaining matches in this series. They will simply have to do it if they still want to stand any chance to be crowned as champions. On top of that they will also hope that the Lions loose at least two of their last three games.
The Titans’ next game is from 12-15 March in Centurion against the Dolphins.
