Titans beat Highveld Lions in Momentum One-Day Cup
After just two rounds of action in the local Momentum One-Day Cup, the Titans is the only unbeaten team in the series.
Albie Morkel and his team scored their second victory on Wednesday night when they won the Jukskei derby against the Highveld Lions in Johannesburg.
Malusi Siboto and Tabraiz Shamsi starred with the ball and Albie Morkel batted the Titans to a defendable target as they returned to Momentum One-Day Cup action with a 32-run win over the Highveld Lions at the Wanderers Stadium.
Andrea Agathangelou (68) and Morkel (81) scored half-centuries as the Titans made 264 all out after winning the toss and electing to bat first.
Siboto and Shamsi then shared six wickets as they stifled the Lions middle-order and paved the way for the home side to be bowled out for 232 and giving the Titans their second straight win in defence of their title.
Agathangelou has played just one previous franchise match for the Titans but he ensured they made it through a tough start against the new ball used by three international pacemen, scoring a determined 68 off 79 balls that helped minimise the damage done by Beuran Hendricks’ double-strike up front.
The left-arm seamer had Heino Kuhn (23) and Rivaldo Moonsamy (4) caught behind by wicketkeeper and former Titans player Mangaliso Mosehle in successive overs, but Heinrich Klaasen, who has taken to the number four role with aplomb, then scored a run-a-ball 31 as he and Agathangelou added 55 for the third wicket in 10 overs.
They were dismissed by Hardus Viljoen and Dwaine Pretorius in quick succession and Morkel, who has not had much batting to do lately, came to the crease with the Titans on an unsure 140 for four at the halfway mark.
But that the left-hander has major batting ability that extends way beyond just clubbing boundaries at the death is well-known, and Morkel showed all his experience and quality in scoring a run-a-ball 81, with seven fours and three sixes, that lifted the Titans to their match winning score.
Farhaan Behardien (29) played the only other innings of significance for the Titans as Hendricks took three wickets in the 47th over to finish with five for 49.
Defending a very gettable total, it was important the Titans struck early in the field and Klaasen, keeping wicket for the first 13 overs, turned a half-chance into an excellent run out that removed Lions captain Stephen Cook for 11.
Siboto then dismissed the in-form Reeza Hendricks (11) in his second over and the Lions were soon in trouble as Shamsi, in an outstanding stint of three for 40 in 10 overs, claimed the next three wickets to fall: Dominic Hendricks stumped by Moonsamy for 24, Omphile Ramela trapped lbw for 30 and Dwaine Pretorius dismissed in the same fashion for 33.
That left the Lions on 152 for five, needing 113 in 16 overs. Siboto turned the game decisively in the Titans’ favour when he forced Rassie van der Dussen, who had scored a composed 49, to edge behind into the gloves of Klaasen, who was back in behind the stumps after bowling two tidy overs of off-spin.
The Lions were eventually all out in the penultimate over when Siboto bowled Bjorn Fortuin (32) to finish with excellent figures of three for 30 in 8.5 overs.
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