Subrayen puts Dolphins on victory path
Day 4 of 5 HollywoodBets Dolphins 295 Multiply Titans 53 and 92/4
THE Dolphins put themselves on the brink of a stunning victory in the Four-Day Series, thanks to outstanding work from their spinners at Kingsmead yesterday.
Seventeen wickets fell on the penultimate day of the five-day final in Durban, but the hosts won’t give a hoot about the three they lost quite quickly in the morning.
That allowed them to get stuck into the Titans’ flimsy batting order with Dolphins skipper Marques Ackerman smartly deciding to open the bowling with off-spinner Prenelan Subrayen.
It was a move that paid early dividends with Subrayen dismissing Yaseen Valli and Neil Brand within the first 10 overs.
The Titans were very much their own enemy on a surface that was slow and where the bounce kept disconcertingly low, but the visiting batting unit was far too tentative in their approach against the spinners.
Boundaries don’t need to be hit every over, but there is a skill in turning over the strike and knocking around singles that the Titans batsmen never employed.
Instead they allowed the Dolphins’ spinners - with Senuran Muthusamy providing Subrayen with good support - to dominate.
Ackerman could place fielders where ever he liked, but in the main, he was reliant on the accuracy of the two spinners, and the pair played their part perfectly.
Having picked up three wickets before lunch, they got the vital breakthrough shortly after the interval, when newly installed Proteas Test skipper, Dean Elgar, in trying to raise the intensity of the Titans batting, lofted Subrayen to Sarel Erwee who took a good catch tumbling forward at mid-on.
The rest of the batting order folded - including a dreadful run out of Dayyan Galiem before he’d faced a ball - with the visitors dismissed for 53, the second lowest total in the four-day competition in the franchise era.
Subrayen finished with 6/24, a career-best effort, while Muthusamy claimed 3/12.
Ackerman duly asked the TItans to follow-on and while they showed better intensity at the crease in the second innings, the pitch by late afternoon was playing serious tricks.
The Dolphins need just six wicket on the final day to lift what would be a much-deserved title.