Markram looks ahead to finale
IT’S A PRIVILEGE TO BE INVOLVED IN SHOWPIECE Leg-spinner could be fall-guy thanks to the quota system.
Titans opener Aiden Markram says he is very excited about playing a key role in tomorrow’s Momentum One-Day Cup final against the Warriors at Centurion, having thrived with more clarity over his role this season.
Markram has scored 347 runs in eight innings, including his record-breaking 183 against the Highveld Lions at the Wanderers, the highest ever score in the competition, and has made his runs at a brisk strike-rate of 95.32.
“I’m very excited and it’s a privilege to be involved in a final, especially since I wasn’t too involved in the T20 season. I’m more clear about my role-definition now: Henry Davids and Jonathan Vandiar are both very good and attacking batsmen, so the coach (Mark Boucher) said I can try and bat for 45 to 50 overs and set up the innings.
“I’ve enjoyed that, it’s been a very different challenge for me, but it’s been rewarding. I do experience a bit of pressure up front, I’m only human, and I did struggle at the start of the competition. It’s more of a mental thing and a few chats with the coach and senior players got me back on track,” Markram said.
While the Titans have a star-studded team – including AB de Villiers, while Davids, named the franchise’s limited-overs Player-of-the-Year on Tuesday night, will have a late fitness test on his hamstring – Markram said the Warriors are going to be extremely tough opposition, the sort of side that is way more than the sum of their parts.
“The Warriors almost come across as real scrappers and they’re very good when they are the underdogs.
“We know it’s going to be a very difficult match, just like it was in the T20 final,” Markram said.
In that game, the Warriors restricted the Titans to 155/6, with Markram emerging as top-scorer with 33, and then pushed the defending champions all the way as they fell just six runs short of victory. Seam bowlers Lungi Ngidi, Junior Dala and Malusi Siboto emerged as the heroes for the Titans.
Just as the Warriors were forced by quotas to leave out their leading wicket-taker Andrew Birch for that final, so the Titans look set to have to omit leg-spinner Shaun von Berg, their most successful bowler, as well as all-rounder David Wiese in one of the crazy side-effects of the new transformation effort.