Ken Borland

When Unlimited Titans coach Rob Walter sat down on the SuperSport Park outfield with his team as the sun disappeared over Wierda Park after the third day of their final Sunfoil Series match against the Warriors, he no doubt stressed the importance of finishing the season well.

His team did that, fighting hard on the final day of the match for the second weekend in a row, beating the Warriors by 87 runs, to finish in a respectable fourth place on the Sunfoil Series log.

A fortnight ago, the Titans were firmly anchored in last place on the log, 13.60 points behind the Highveld Lions. Victories over the Knights and Warriors meant they leapfrogged both their neighbours and the Eastern Cape side, finishing just 5.88 points off the third-placed Dolphins.

Walter will be the first to admit his team erred badly in the opening stages of the four-day competition, especially in terms of their batting. Limited-overs cricket is clearly this Titans team’s strength, and it was perhaps understandable they took a while to get into occupying-the-crease mode.

But by the end of the campaign, a new four-day modus operandi was being implemented and the depth of the squad was also being established with several fringe players getting a run and many of them doing well enough to suggest they will be part of the Titans’ plans next season.

“There were a couple of things to get excited about at the end of the season, we were playing a better brand of four-day cricket and the right strategies were being implemented. We don’t want to make it too complicated, it’s a very simple game plan and it’s just a matter of executing it,” Walter told The Pretoria News yesterday.

“Young guys have also been doing well at the back end of the season, which shows we do have some depth and able replacements in most areas. The Cobras won the competition because their senior players stood up, but their depth also performed. It’s important that we improve our depth.”

Many critics questioned whether the Titans have the bowlers to succeed in four-day cricket, but they took 20 wickets in their last two matches on relatively flat pitches.

David Wiese, with 30 wickets in six matches at an average of 17.56, did a magnificent job for the Titans, while Shaun von Berg and Marchant de Lange did much for the connoisseurs of leg-spin and fast bowling respectively to look forward to next season.

“How David has grown from a skill point of view has been one of the highlights of the season for me,” Walter said. “He has outstanding skill, he’s good with the new ball or, as he showed against the Warriors, with a 65-70 over ball. So he’s able to bowl in different phases of the game and the key is his accuracy and consistency.

“Marchant showed his old self in patches, he makes it very uncomfortable for the batsman and even guys with a hundred were jumping around. That’s obviously exciting and he can be a real impact player for us moving forward, as will Shaun.

“By his own admission, Shaun struggled with his rhythm on the final day against the Warriors, but I’m very happy with the way he bowled this season. The next step in his development  is knowing what to do when batsmen come after him or when the ball’s not coming out great,” Walter said.

The alleged lack of batting depth in the Titans also seems to be overstated when one considers the runs made by Theunis de Bruyn, Graeme van Buuren, Grant Thomson, Cobus Pienaar and Qaasim Adams in recent weeks.

Young opener Ernest Kemm also had his day in the sun with 62 on the third day of the match against the Warriors.

Walter said that the competition for batting places next season would be healthy for the team.

“Theunis looked really good and it’s great that we have a couple of options in terms of opening batsmen. Dean Elgar won’t be around for every game, so we need to make sure that we have back-up. We have able replacements and they’ll also be pushing Heino Kuhn,” the coach said.

Pienaar and Thomson have also produced valuable bowling performances for the Titans and that only adds to their value, while the strong finish to the season made by Adams means the stocks are healthy in the middle-order.

“The four-day victories where you go the distance to win and put in the hard yards are definitely the most satisfying. And the fact we shared the Momentum One-Day Cup with a set of young players mixed in with the experience and had a good end to the Sunfoil Series with the same mix, is very encouraging,” Walter said.

South Africa coach Russell Domingo on Monday defended his team’s tactical approach in the ICC World T20 in Bangladesh, saying AB de Villiers is “an impact player” who needs the game to be set up for him.

South Africa bowed out of the competition at the semi-final stage, beaten by six wickets with five balls remaining by India, but faced criticism in some quarters for their tactics, especially their decision to bat De Villiers at number five and only give Dale Steyn one over in the first 14 overs.

“AB is an impact player and the stats show – not just for South Africa but also in the IPL – that he’s more dangerous when the game has been set up for him. He doesn’t have the same game as Virat Kohli, he’s batted three with limited success.

“But it’s not about the number he bats, it’s about the situation when he comes in. If he walks out in the first over, I don’t think that’s a great time for him to bat, but if there’s been a good start then that’s a great time for him to bat.

“But if we have a 13-over partnership then there’s criticism that AB’s coming in too low, people seem to want our players to get out so AB can come in,” Domingo said.

De Villiers’ one notable innings at the ICC World T20 came in their last group match against England when he came in at number three in the 11^th over, after an opening partnership of 90 between Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock, and blazed 69 not out from 28 balls. In his other innings he came in at four in the 11^th over against Sri Lanka and scored 24 off 16; at four in the six^th over against New Zealand and made five off six balls; at four in the fifth over against the Netherlands and scored a run-a-ball 21; and in the semi-final he came in at five in the 14^th over and made just 10 off eight deliveries.

The coach said the decision to hold Steyn back in the semi-final was due to batsmen having an extremely attacking mindset later in the innings.

“Dale can only bowl four overs and we need him the middle and at the end of the innings. We also need to set up the six-over Powerplay up front as best as we can, but we can’t bowl Dale one up front, just one in the middle and two at the death.

“So we decided we’d rather have guys like JP Duminy bowling at the start in the less-pressured overs and he only went for seven in the first over against New Zealand while Dale went for 17 in the first over against Sri Lanka. But the fifth and sixth overs are the most attacking,” Domingo said.

Domingo said overall he was “not displeased” by the way his team had performed.

“You’re always judged on your last game, but I felt we played some really good cricket in the tournament. In those conditions, probably the two best sides [Sri Lanka and India] made the final, but we were quietly confident going in.

“We’ve generally played good T20 cricket in the last year, we have a good playing strategy, we got to number two in the world, so there’s a definite upward trend. We lost the Australian series because we got beaten in a seven-over game and then played badly in the other match, but we had success in Pakistan and we beat Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.”

Captain Faf du Plessis said he was also happy with the performances.

“It was really good to see a lot of character in the boys. Previously we’ve deserved a lot of criticism for how we’ve played the big moments, but to score 172 under high pressure in the semi-final, against those bowlers, was a really good effort.

“We made one or two mistakes on the night, but credit to a really good Indian team who were better than us on the night. But I’m really proud of the way the boys performed, I’m not disappointed at all,” Du Plessis said.

Domestic four-day cricket seldom receives the attention it should, but Unlimited Titans coach Rob Walter said yesterday that their thrilling 32-run weekend victory over the Knights in their Sunfoil Series match at SuperSport Park was “the way cricket should be played”.

The Knights mounted a stirring run-chase on a great final day as they tried to chase down 435 and were on target as Gihahn Cloete and Rilee Rossouw blazed hundreds.

After 70 overs, the Knights looked as if they were cruising to victory on 287 for one, needing 148 runs off 36 overs with Cloete and Rossouw in full flight. But JP de Villiers removed both set batsmen and the second new ball then produced a remarkable collapse of six wickets for 18 runs in eight overs in the hands of David Wiese and Marchant de Lange.

A last-wicket stand of 43 between Malusi Siboto and Corne Dry revitalised the Knights before Wiese claimed the final wicket and a famous win at 5.25pm.

“That’s the way cricket should be played. We set up the game with the second new ball very much in mind, leaving us enough overs with it to make an impact, but I never thought it would have to make so much of an impact!

“I’m very excited by the win because it means a helluva lot, it speaks volumes for the culture within the team. We don’t have much to play for in terms of the competition, but we didn’t want to just rock up and play without any care.

“We showed great care and pride in our performance and, if the scoreboard had been switched off, someone watching would never have thought the score was 300 for two. There were a few overs when they really bossed us, but the intensity was amazing and awesome to see,” Walter told The Pretoria News yesterday.

While chasing 435 would normally be one of those flights of fancy that seldom occur in real life, conditions and the brilliance of Cloete and Rossouw had the Knights well on course.

“The pitch was very flat on the fourth day and never offered much of anything. Plus for [leg-spinner] Shaun von Berg to bowl to two left-handers like Cloete and Rossouw was tough. If two batsmen get in those conditions, then chasing six an over is quite easy, it’s very difficult to defend, especially with a short boundary at one end,” Walter explained.

De Lange was like Hagar The Horrible with the new ball, obtaining spiteful, awkward bounce at high pace and Walter said he was delighted the fast bowler was able to make such an impact in his first game for the Titans since November.

“I’m really happy for Marchant’s sake because it’s a reward for a lot of patience and hard work. He really wanted to play earlier, but he had to buy into the process. It’s not just about being physically fit, he had to earn his place. And it’s really exciting that he managed to produce that pace at 4.30pm on the last day of a four-day match,” Walter said.

Cloete received the man of the match award for his maiden century in the Sunfoil Series, but the honour should surely have gone to Wiese, who made important contributions of 45 and 31 not out with the bat and had match figures of six for 93 with the ball. He removed both openers in the Knights first innings, paving the way for their dismissal for just 218 and then claimed four for 18 with the second new ball in the dramatic finale.

“David is really starting to find his feet with the new ball, he’s got seriously good skill with it and can swing it both ways, as well as containing nicely too. His wickets with the new ball and his contributions with the bat at number seven make him a real all-rounder who provides such stability. We can rely on him,” Walter said.

Judging by the spirit shown this weekend, Titans fans can rely on their team going all out to end the season on a high with victory over the Warriors in their final match starting at Centurion on Thursday.

“It’ll be nice to win because three wins will be a 300% improvement on last season. We want to maintain the momentum of what we did this weekend,” Walter said.

South Africa coach Russell Domingo believes his team is “one of seven or eight” that can win the ICC World T20, despite suffering a hiding at the hands of Australia in Centurion on Friday night to lose their T20 series 2-0.

The Proteas leave for Bangladesh on Saturday and play two warm-up games against Bangladesh A and Pakistan before opening their World T20 campaign against Asia Cup champions Sri Lanka on March 22.

“There are seven or eight teams that can win the T20 World Cup and we’re one of them,” Domingo told a press conference in Centurion after the loss to Australia by six wickets with five overs to spare.

“It’s not a bad way to go into the tournament because the pressure won’t be there of being one of a couple of obvious favourites. We need a couple of players to do well, to have outstanding tournaments, and for the team to do well in the big moments and then we’ll be right in contention,” Domingo told a press conference in Centurion after the loss to Australia by six wickets with five overs to spare.

Domingo brushed off concerns that South Africa’s performances against Australia were indicative of a loss of confidence in the team.

“We’ve played good T20 cricket in the last year-and-a bit so there’s no need to make drastic changes. T20 cricket does have a lot to do with confidence, but we’ve been to world cups before extremely confident … ’’

The coach said the return of injured fast bowlers Dale Steyn (hamstring) and Morne Morkel (shoulder) would make a huge difference to the side. Both pacemen are expected to be fit for South Africa’s warm-up games in Bangladesh.

“This series has provided some answers for us. It has shown the impact of not having Dale and Morne. You can’t buy that quality and experience and it has highlighted how important they are,” Domingo said.

The coach said they would “not be losing any sleep” over the decline in the fielding standards of the team because “we have always been a quality fielding unit”.

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