Titans put Lions in their place
BOUCHER’S MEN STROLL TO 109-RUN WIN Weakened visitors have no answer at SuperSport Park.
The Titans will savour a comfortable victory by 109 runs over the Highveld Lions in the domestic One-Day Cup yesterday but the cricket at SuperSport Park in Centurion was hardly vintage.
In fact, Mark Boucher’s troops will probably be first to admit that they merely use the freebies given to them by their neighbours from across the Jukskei River. And there were plenty of those. It’s still early in this 50-over campaign but the Lions have problems, especially in the batting department.
They’ve already been without Kagiso Rabada and Dwaine Pretorius, who have played starring roles to date in the Proteas’ oneday series against New Zealand.
To make matters worse, captain Stephen Cook and Temba Bavuma departed as well after Friday night’s loss to the Dolphins to join up with the Test squad.
Essentially, the heart of this team has been ripped out and the influential Pretorius only returns late next weekend.
They severely lack dependable firepower with the bat, particularly in the middle-order.
Not that the Lions bowlers didn’t have opportunities to restrict the hosts on a slow surface clearly affected by all the rain.
Veteran opener Henry Davids, who had reached a serene 63 off 70, wasted a fine platform when he tried to hit out and was caught off teenager Wiaan Mulder (1/39).
The Lions even had the opportunity of bowling the Titans out when steady left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin’s (2/46) double strike – both Rivaldo Moonsamy and Heino Kuhn (33) offered soft dismissals – left them 156/6 in the 30th over.
But they allowed the calm Albie Morkel to rebuild with the minimum amount of fuss.
The former Proteas all-rounder restrained himself well to finish with an unbeaten 61 off 61 balls.
A total of 268/9 represented an unacceptable recovery from the Lions’ perspective.
The hostile Junior Dala extracted great pace out of the sluggish track to have the visitors limping early on.
He took three wickets in his first spell to finish with 3/21 off six overs.
It would also seem the absence of Lungi Ngidi won’t be felt if Eldred Hawken is around.
The 27-year-old quick from Tzaneen with a round-armed action supported Dala well with 3/40.