Ken Borland

The Unlimited Titans won the toss and batted first on a dry, brown pitch at SuperSport Park yesterday, but failed to take full advantage of the friendly conditions, scoring 268 for six on the first day of their Sunfoil Series match against the Warriors.

The total was built around two impressive partnerships: opener Theunis de Bruyn and captain Henry Davids adding 108 in two hours for the second wicket, and debutant Grant Thomson and rookie Cobus Pienaar putting on 73 off 160 balls for the sixth wicket.

Thomson and Pienaar steadied the Titans after they had lost three wickets for 11 runs, batting for just over an hour-and-a-half, but Thomson was unable to see off the second new ball, edging Basheer Walters to third slip to fall for 40, a tenacious innings that was most valuable to his team.

The Titans have spent much of the campaign in inward reflection over their batting failures, but they seemed set to produce a sizeable total in their last game of the season as Theunis de Bruyn and Henry Davids took them to 128 for one midway through the second session.

They came together after Ernest Kemm had been dismissed for seven by Walters, and by lunch they had added 71 to take the total to 91 for one.

De Bruyn, the 21-year-old Tukkies star, has only previously played two T20 games for the Titans, scoring 53 not out on debut and then 23. He reached another half-century yesterday by hitting off-spinner Simon Harmer for three fours in his second over of the day.

De Bruyn, who played with impressive assurance in scoring 79 in just short of three hours at the crease, collecting 11 fours, mostly through the off-side, was eventually dismissed by the combination of a fine delivery from Walters and a brilliant one-handed catch by Ryan Bailey at slip.

Davids, for the first time in this campaign, looked like the king of the crease as he moved to 60 – his first half-century of the 2013/14 Sunfoil Series – off 116 balls before becoming over-confident and trying to drive Andrew Birch on the up.

The seamer was bowling from the West Lane End, from which deliveries holding up and popping off the pitch had been one of the features, and Davids’ ill-judged stroke merely presented a comfortable return catch to Birch.

Harmer then trapped Qaasim Adams lbw for 23 with a delivery that kept low – although the batsman should have been forward instead of back, and the Titans slipped to 180 for five when Mangaliso Mosehle was dismissed for just 3.

The ability of part-time left-arm spinner Jon-Jon Smuts to take important wickets has been one of the features of the Warriors season and he removed Mosehle with his fifth delivery, a well-executed arm-ball.

But Thomson, making his franchise debut, and Pienaar, playing just his seventh Sunfoil Series game, proved a powerful syndicate as they ensured that honours finished even after the first day.

Pienaar has done more than enough this season to ink his name into the Titans’ future plans, and the left-hander finished the day on 48 not out, also showing great determination.

Walters was the bowler who troubled the Titans’ batsmen the most, ending the day with fine figures of three for 36 in 18 overs.

What the Unlimited Titans team to take on the Warriors in a Sunfoil Series match from today lacks in experience it will no doubt make up for in terms of enthusiasm as a new-look side completes the season at SuperSport Park in Centurion.

Coach Rob Walter has decided to reward the form of players excelling for Northerns and Easterns in the CSA Provincial Three-Day Competition, with Theunis de Bruyn, Ernest Kemm, Shershan Naidoo, Cobus Pienaar and Grant Thomson all included in the squad of 13 named yesterday.

This obviously means that some regular players will be missing out on the last game of the season, most notably the Titans’ leading run-scorer, Roelof van der Merwe and JP de Villiers, while Heino Kuhn, named as the franchise’s Player of the Year on Tuesday night, has been included in the squad but could well be rested from the starting XI.

“We want to give the guys who have performed at amateur level an opportunity, even though it means guys who deserve to play like Roelof and JP miss out, but we need to look at our options for next season. We need to acknowledge some of the performances that have been put in at that level,” Walter told The Pretoria News yesterday.

Thomson, the 26-year-old Easterns all-rounder, tops the averages in the CSA Provincial Three-Day Competition with 799 runs at 61.46, while he has also picked up 26 wickets with his seamers.

Naidoo, a 24-year-old from Pretoria Boys’ High and Tukkies, has earned his call-up through sheer consistency, scoring 675 runs with seven half-centuries and a hundred.

Easterns opener Ernest Kemm made his debut for the Titans last weekend, scoring just 3 and 8, but he has made three centuries this season at the amateur level and clearly deserves another chance as a future prospect.

Theunis de Bruyn and Cobus Pienaar have both shone for the Titans earlier this season and thoroughly deserve their recalls as they will clearly play a part next season.

Walter said his side will go in with an extra batting option against the Warriors because “it’s important when you have younger guys up front that there is some stability and depth”.

The coach said although the Warriors are also bringing a new-look team to Centurion, he was wary of their attack featuring Andrew Birch, Basheer Walters and new captain, off-spinner Simon Harmer, who have taken 84 wickets between them.

Although Colin Ingram and Davey Jacobs are both out injured and Ashwell Prince has retired, the Warriors batsmen are also not to be underestimated; when the Titans played them in Port Elizabeth just before Christmas, Michael Price scored 181 and Colin Ackermann 110 as they amassed a match-winning 502 for five declared.

Squad: Ernest Kemm, Theunis de Bruyn, Cobus Pienaar, Henry Davids, Qaasim Adams, Grant Thomson, David Wiese, Mangaliso Mosehle, Shaun von Berg, Marchant de Lange, Junior Dala, Shershan Naidoo, Heino Kuhn.

Heino Kuhn anchored the Unlimited Titans during their phenomenal late run to a share of the Momentum One-Day Cup trophy this season and the top-order batsman’s reward came last night as he picked up three major honours at the franchise’s annual awards dinner at SuperSport Park, celebrating his 30^th birthday in tremendous style.

Kuhn scored successive centuries in run-chases, preceded by an innings of 92 off 80 balls to keep the Titans alive in the competition, as he finished as the leading run-scorer in the One-Day Cup with 470 runs at an average of 47. Unsurprisingly, he was named as the Titans’ player of that tournament and must be the favourite to take the overall national honour too.

His decision to relinquish the wicketkeeper’s gloves in order to concentrate on his batting certainly paid off in the limited-overs formats and Kuhn also enjoyed an excellent RamSlam T20 Challenge run, averaging 36 at a strike-rate of 141.

A disappointing Sunfoil Series has seen Kuhn only average 25, but he has scored three half-centuries and is the Titans’ second-highest run-scorer. Overall, the man from Piet Retief who has played five T20 internationals for South Africa did enough to also take away the Players’ Player of the Year award as well as the overall Player of the Year honour.

The Sunfoil Series player of the tournament award was won by leg-spinner Shaun von Berg, who has been the leading wicket-taker with 28 at an average of 29, as well as making the only century by a Titans player in the competition this season – a blazing 105 off 73 balls against the Cobras in Benoni which broke Lance Klusener’s record for the fastest hundred by a franchise batsman.

The Titans were hugely boosted by the presence of Pakistani mystery spinner Saeed Ajmal in the T20 Challenge and he proved his worth by taking 15 wickets in six matches at an average of 9.26 and an economy rate of 6.13. Ajmal was a worthy winner of the Titans T20 Challenge Player of the Tournament.

Perhaps the biggest strides made this season were by 23-year-old rookie Graeme van Buuren, who made runs in all formats and chipped in valuably with his slow left-arm spin in the limited-overs formats.

Van Buuren’s progress was recognised by both the Newcomer and Most Improved Player of the Year awards.

No one ever doubted during his playing days that Pierre de Bruyn was, as they would have put it on the East Rand, “a tough oke”.

Through 15 years of professional cricket for Easterns, Northerns, the Titans and the Dolphins, De Bruyn was famous for being a real scrapper, someone who made the absolute most of his talents.

A first-class record of 4637 runs at an average of 37, with a highest score of 202, and 108 wickets at an average of 29 only tells half the story because he was an even greater competitor in the limited-overs formats, and yet De Bruyn is happy to say “I wasn’t talented at all”.

“I managed to string together 15 years as a professional cricketer through complete hard work. I always tried to be one step ahead of the guy next to me through focus, discipline and enormous work ethic. I really wanted the tough situation,” he says.

De Bruyn retired in 2010, having left his beloved Titans to spend two seasons with the Dolphins, and is now a Level III coach. Having discovered how to make the most of his own talent, it is pleasing that the all-rounder is now teaching youngsters how to do the same.

The 36-year-old is the technical director and head coach at the University of Pretoria, a top-class outfit that is dominating South African club cricket.

“From what I’ve experienced as a player, I can teach the youngsters how to start and sustain a professional career, both of which are not that easy. I’m working with guys who have everything in terms of talent, but I can really teach them things in terms of mental preparation or how to build an innings. It helps having had a tough career myself,” De Bruyn says.

Going to the Tukkies nets opposite the famous High Performance Centre at the University of Pretoria, it is clear the cricket club is being run like a professional outfit.

Their focus is clearly on the future – “The pace of the game is moving so fast and you need to get there before anyone else,” De Bruyn says – but they haven’t lost sight of the traditions that all great teams have.

Going into the upstairs section of their clubhouse is like a walk down memory lane as former Tukkies greats are commemorated in photographs and on an honours board – names like Mike Macaulay, Syd Burke, Alan Jordaan, Hein Raath, Tertius Bosch, Anton Ferreira, Martin van Jaarsveld, Jacques Rudolph, New Zealand Test cricketers Neil Wagner and Kruger van Wyk, AB de Villiers, Marchant de Lange, Morne and Albie Morkel, Paul Harris, Faf du Plessis, CJ de Villiers and Zimbabwe’s Kyle Jarvis.

Tukkies have also been at the forefront of the women’s game in South Africa, producing current national captain Mignon du Preez and fellow internationals Melissa Smook, Yulandi van der Merwe, Lonell de Beer, Cindy Eksteen and Charlize van der Westhuizen.

“Tradition and history is part of our culture of success. We let the guys know about the traditions of the club; we’re 95 years old now and they must never forget who represented this club,” De Bruyn says.

The most obvious feature of their training sessions is intensity: De Bruyn works groups of two or three players hard in fielding drills while former Titans coach Chris van Noordwyk is very hands-on in the nets, giving tactical advice and lots of encouragement.

“We’ve definitely got a professional approach, I want to show these high-performance cricketers what a professional environment is like so that when they get the call-up to higher honours, like Francois le Clus, Graeme van Buuren and Theunis de Bruyn have this season, they are familiar with the standards and know what to expect. They don’t have to try and find their feet for the first two weeks, which can set you back badly,” De Bruyn says.

Being able to use the services of coaches like De Bruyn, Van Noordwyk and academy coach Aldin Smith – who have all played first-class cricket – is obviously one of the keys to Tukkies’ incredible recent record: They have won the Momentum National Club Championships for the last two seasons, unbeaten, triumphed in the Universities Sports South Africa Week in December, and have won the Northerns Premier League for the last four years, with an unbeaten run of 85 games.

But the considerable support of the university’s sports office and chief sponsor Assupol also plays a major part and the facilities at Tukkies are first-class. De Bruyn says R2.5 million has been spent on upgrading the nets and they will also have full use of the state-of-the-art new CSA Centre of Excellence opening this month.

The wealth and success of the club also guarantees the steady flow of promising cricketers, many of them the recipients of bursaries.

The Tukkies 2^nd XI also play in the Northerns Premier League and are challenging for a place in the top three, showing the incredible depth present at the club.

The critics, however, say the club is greedy and causing an imbalance in the province by hogging all the best players.

“It’s tough. The elite squad is 25 players, which covers the 1^st and 2^nd XIs. We need that depth because this season alone we’ve lost seven players to the next level and we have to make sure we have replacements.

“It’s a fast-moving environment and it’s not like guys are stuck in the second team. They’re training and competing with first-class players day in and day out and the club is basically like a full-time high-performance programme for the Titans. It’s tough for the local clubs, but it’s the same in Port Elizabeth, Potchefstroom and Stellenbosch. It’s a massive positive for any union to have a strong university,” De Bruyn says.

Northerns Cricket Union president John Wright agrees that the Titans benefit from the excellence of Tukkies.

“The other clubs are under the impression that Tukkies get preferential treatment, but it’s not the case. They have top facilities, full-time coaches and the support of the university and a major sponsor, so they attract the top players. It’s just an unfortunate fact of life that these factors weigh against the other clubs, but it all benefits the Titans.

“They just have to be aware of the flip-side: If they take all the good players, then they might not have anybody to play against,” Wright says.