Titans let down by poor bowling — coach

THE Titans need to tighten the bowling up front, according to their coach, Rob Walter.

The Centurion cricket side will take on their Gauteng rivals, the Highveld Lions, in a Jukskei derby in the Momentum One Day Cup tomorrow — their second game of the competition this season.

Last weekend, the Titans were defeated at home by the Cape Cobras at SuperSport Park as the Cape Town side edged out Walter’s charges with a two-run DuckworthLewis win following a rain delay.

The Titans coach pointed to the bowling in the early stages of the game as their downfall in their first game last week.

“Our bowling in our first 10 overs let us down a bit. If we had bowled well, we could have held them to under 190. But it was a difficult pitch to bowl on,” Walter said.

The coach also saw some promising aspects that he hopes will help his team as they attempt to end a threeseason drought in the competition since last lifting the 50-overs trophy in 2009. Walter is impressed by the promise his middle-order and tail batting line-up is showing.

David Wiese (with a score of 42), Graeme van Buuren (30) and Mangaliso Mosehle (25) were among the top-four highest scorers in the game against the Cobras last week.

“I must say I was excited by our mid- to lower-batting order, who managed to grind it out. If we can continue combining like that, then our batting line-up could prove to be quite potent,” the coach said.

Tomorrow, the Titans face last season’s joint winners, the Lions, at Wanderers Stadium, and Walter expects no favours from their neighbours, who also lost their first outing of the season when they went down by by six wickets against the Dolphins in Potchefstroom last weekend.

“It will be a good, closely contested game,” Walter said.