Ken Borland

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With the Unlimited Titans out of contention in the Sunfoil Series, coach Rob Walter will be testing the ability of young fringe players in four-day cricket in the last three games of the season, starting with the clash against the Dolphins which is scheduled to start at Willowmoore Park in Benoni today.

Batsmen Theunis de Bruyn and Cobus Pienaar and wicketkeeper Tumelo Bodibe have all been called up for this weekend’s match as the Titans desperately try and find batsmen who can bat time.

A reshuffled batting line-up will see captain Henry Davids move up the order to open with Heino Kuhn, while Roelof van der Merwe, who has scored four half-centuries in eight innings to top the Titans’ batting averages, will move up to number five.

Walter has indicated he is going to play both left-arm spinner Van der Merwe and leggie Shaun von Berg, their leading wicket-taker, and will retain pacemen JP de Villiers and Junior Dala, while also including fast man Marchant de Lange for the first time in the campaign. So the final place in the starting XI is going to come down to a choice between De Bruyn and Pienaar.

Francois le Clus, Mangaliso Mosehle and Vincent Moore (who is particularly unfortunate) are the players to make way for the new blood.

Mosehle, after averaging 40 in the Momentum One-Day Cup, has managed to score just 146 runs in 10 innings in the Sunfoil Series, while Le Clus was only marginally better with 179 runs in 11 innings.

“Tumelo has played before for the Titans, a couple of years back, and we just want to see if he can offer more with the bat than Mangi, who has kept wicket outstandingly well, so that’s not what we’re trying to replace,” Walter told The Pretoria News yesterday.

Dala gets another chance after trying too hard to make an impact with his brand new team against the Cape Cobras in Paarl – he arrived on loan from the Highveld Lions just two days before the match – but he does have pace and bowled progressively better last weekend.

More importantly, his selection allows the Titans to field two Black Africans and their eyes are also clearly on Cricket South Africa’s incentives for transformation.

Walter can also defend the selection on the basis that the pacemen will be rotated, along with other young prospects like Easterns opening batsman Ernest Kemm, in the last three games.

The good news for the Titans is that they won’t be coming up against the best fast bowler in the competition, Kyle Abbott, or hard-hitting batsman David Miller, who are in the South African squad for the T20s against Australia.

But the Dolphins are a team on the rise and Walter is aware that his side face another major challenge.

“The Dolphins played particularly well in their last game, against the Warriors, and they’ve had a very similar looking team the whole season. Which shows they’re stable and they have a good set-up,” Walter said.

The news from Willowmoore Park yesterday was that the ground still looks as if it had suffered numerous airstrikes from water bombers and a wet outfield is something that has ruined matches before in Benoni.

Play starting on time today is unlikely plus there is the threat of further rain, but, as much as people like to rail against the facilities at Willowmoore Park, this time there is very good reason for their difficulties.

The Titans have played one other four-day game in Benoni this season and that was against the Cobras at the end of November, and bad weather cost an entire day’s play and led to that match being a dull draw.

The Titans did at least bat well though and scored 491 for seven declared, and Von Bergh lashed the fastest century in Sunfoil Series history, off just 73 balls, with 11 fours and five sixes.

And Walter is hoping for a similar batting display this time round.

Titans squad: Heino Kuhn, Henry Davids, Graeme van Buuren, Qaasim Adams, Roelof van der Merwe, Cobus Pienaar, Theunis de Bruyn, Tumelo Bodibe, Shaun von Berg, JP de Villiers, Marchant de Lange, Junior Dala.

The Unlimited Titans suffered their fourth defeat in seven Sunfoil Series matches at the weekend when the Cape Cobras thumped them by 211 runs in Paarl, but coach Rob Walter’s options continue to shrink as injuries only add to his difficulties.

Of the 20 players contracted to the Titans, five are away with the national squad and another five are injured or otherwise unavailable. It leaves Walter in the awkward position of either fielding out-of-form players or replacing them with unknown quantities who are totally untested at franchise level.

“Obviously we’d like to try and make a few changes, but how do you facilitate that when you’re missing five players with injury? It’s not ideal for young guys to get their first opportunity in this sort of situation, but it would allow us to see what we’ve got in terms of talent waiting in the wings,” Walter told The Pretoria News yesterday.

The batting remains the Titans’ biggest worry after they lost seven wickets for 23 runs to be bowled out for 198 in the first innings in Paarl, before making 232 in the second innings. But two of the changes that Walter might have wanted to make have been scuppered by injury.

Cobus Pienaar has already averaged 32.80 in three Sunfoil Series matches this season and bats in the top-order, but has now suffered a thumb injury that is almost certain to rule him out of contention for this weekend’s match against the Dolphins in Benoni.

Wicketkeeper/batsman Mangaliso Mosehle averaged 40.80 in the Momentum One-Day Cup, but has not come close to reproducing that form in four-day cricket, where he averages just 14.60.

There would appear to be a ready-made replacement in young Heinrich Klaasen, who has averaged 52 in three-day cricket for Northerns this season, but the Tukkies wicketkeeper/batsman now has a broken finger.

Both Pienaar and Klaasen would have been in contention for selection this week, but now Walter will probably have to stick with struggling batsmen like Henry Davids (17.40), Francois le Clus (16.27) and Mosehle.

To be fair to the Titans, their defeat in Paarl was largely down to an amazing spell of bowling by international paceman Rory Kleinveldt, whose spell of five for four in four overs on the third morning utterly destroyed them. At 186 for four, replying to 429, they would have felt the match was on an even footing, but Kleinveldt changed all that.

“Rory bowled exceptionally well with the second new ball and we had young guys coming up against the sort of quality they hadn’t seen before. He was at his best and our batsmen were caught unawares, they weren’t up to the mark,” Walter said.

The bowlers, however, have continued to impress with their determination and, given the 10 days of rain that has swamped Gauteng, they could have a greentop to enjoy at Willowmoore Park this week.

“They have kept improving and it’s such a young attack that we need to be realistic in our expectations of them. They kept plugging away, although their consistency is not always there, but you expect that with youngsters,” Walter said.

Before Kleinveldt so dramatically altered the course of the game in Paarl, Graeme van Buuren had held firm for 208 balls in scoring 85, and Walter said his confidence as well as that of the other batsmen would be boosted.

“Graeme batted exceptionally well and it was nice to see him step up again in a different format. But having a batsman get past 200 balls is a step in the right direction, our time at the crease has improved. Our batsmen need to make big hundreds or, as a collective unit, we need substantial contributions,” Walter said.

National call-ups and injuries have caused Unlimited Titans coach Rob Walter to “take a look into the future” in choosing a new-look team for their Sunfoil Series match against the Nashua Mobile Cape Cobras starting at Boland Park in Paarl today.

Farhaan Behardien and Albie Morkel have joined AB de Villiers and Morne Morkel in the national squad for the T20s against Australia starting on Sunday, while a broken finger has caused the withdrawal of all-rounder David Wiese, so effective with the new ball in recent weeks, joining Ethy Mbhalati and Rowan Richards on the sidelines with injuries.

JP de Villiers gets a chance for the Titans after taking 17 wickets in his last 2 first-class matches for Northerns

Walter has called up pacemen JP de Villiers and Marchant de Lange and batsman Graeme van Buuren, while seamer Junior Dala has been signed on loan from the Highveld Lions.

With youngsters like Francois le Clus, Vincent Moore and Mangaliso Mosehle already in the team, Walter said this weekend’s match would provide an insight into the next tier of talent available to the Titans.

“There are seven players unavailable so with all those guys missing, it’s been difficult to make too many changes. But it’s a great opportunity to look at the future of Titans cricket,” Walter told The Pretoria News yesterday.

The challenge of taking on the defending champions – and current log-leaders – at their tricky Paarl venue is a daunting one and the obvious area in which the Titans are going to have to show massive improvement in order to be competitive is in the batting.

“We’ve got to start getting to the situation where the top six are contributing primarily in terms of runs. We’ve bowled particularly well in the last few games, but the batting line-up really needs to step up and show that they are worthy of their reputations,” Walter said.

Adapting to the quirky conditions of Boland Park will also be crucial. Unlike Gauteng, the Western Cape is baking hot and Walter is expecting that to force the groundsman to leave some grass on the pitch.

“It won’t be that quick, but there may be a bit of lateral movement early on and then it will become more up-and-down,” Walter said.

The Cobras are without Robin Peterson, who has a shoulder injury, and new Proteas call-up Beuran Hendricks, but captain Justin Ontong and his kin have depth and, most importantly, they know how to win.

According to Walter, that confident mentality is what his team need to develop.

“The Cobras play four-day cricket especially well and they’re a side that knows how to win. That’s what we need to get and we need to able to get into a scrap for four days. It’s going to be a tough ask, especially in Paarl,” Walter said.

Surprisingly, the Titans are not necessarily going to play the ultimate Bulldog, Roelof van der Merwe in the starting XI. The all-rounder will only get the nod if they play two spinners.

Without Van der Merwe, an already under-pressure batting line-up could see the struggling Mangaliso Mosehle move up to six and leg-spinner Shaun von Berg bat at seven.

Captain Henry Davids is batting number three and says he needs to lead from the front.

“I need to lead from the front and take responsibility, and batting at number three will give me that opportunity,” Davids said.

“We have bowled very well the past two games, but if we want to pressurise the Cobras, we need to compile big totals. Ultimately, our focus during the rest of the four-day competition is to improve our batting.”

Squads

Cape Cobras: Andrew Puttick, Omphile Ramela, Stiaan van Zyl, Justin Ontong, Yaseen Vallie, Dane Vilas, Justin Kemp, Rory Kleinveldt, Dane Piedt, Dane Paterson, Travis Muller.

Titans: Heino Kuhn, Francois le Clus, Henry Davids, Qaasim Adams, Graeme van Buuren, Mangaliso Mosehle, Roelof van der Merwe, Shaun von Berg, JP de Villiers, Vincent Moore, Marchant de Lange, Junior Dala.

Titans coach Rob Walter

“The responsibility is ours to make some hard calls on ourselves in terms of how we play the game,” Unlimited Titans coach Rob Walter said yesterday after his team had suffered another heavy Sunfoil Series defeat, losing by eight wickets to the Highveld Lions at the Wanderers.

“It’s not about pointing fingers, we are all – myself included – equally responsible for what I rate as our most disappointing performance of the season,” the coach said.

While Walter has understandably tried to share the blame around for the defeat, there is no doubt the batsmen were the most culpable as they produced an abject performance in scoring just 147 and 110 in the match.

And although the Wanderers pitch was a tricky one – there was always a bit of movement around and the bounce was uneven – it’s not as if they succumbed to a top-class bowling attack.

The chief destroyer for the Lions was medium-pacer Brett Pelser, who took seven for 44 in the match, far and away his best performance with the ball in franchise cricket.

“It wasn’t a great pitch, but there’s no ways it was a 147/110 wicket. If you watch the dismissals, most of them were due to poor shot selection and not related to the pitch. It was a case of the batsmen not really understanding what’s required to bat for a long period of time. It’s easy to convince yourself that the pitch is so bad, so you end up making a play and getting yourself out,” Walter said.

With the Titans now nearly 30 points off the pace of the log-leading Cape Cobras with just four rounds remaining, the time has probably come for some changes to the team.

Francois le Clus, Henry Davids and Mangaliso Mosehle are all averaging less than 20 with the bat, but the latter two have factors in their favour: Davids is the respected captain, while Mosehle is a fine wicketkeeper and, of course, a Black African. With Ethy Mbhalati out injured, a Titans team without a single Black African would be unacceptable to many.

“We’re certainly nearing the time when some changes are necessary to bring us some fresh ideas and fresh hunger,” Walter conceded.

Graeme van Buuren, who played a key role in the Titans’ amazing Momentum One-Day Cup comeback – it was so extraordinary a movie should be made of it – is one candidate for promotion, while there are other in-form batsmen in provincial cricket like opener Ernest Kemm, Tukkies star Theunis de Bruyn and wicketkeeper/batsman Heinrich Klaasen who are pushing hard for inclusion.

In contrast to the batsmen, the bowlers are in the coach’s good books at the moment. In the absence of Mbhalati, Marchant de Lange and Rowan Richards, they performed manfully in the Lions match.

“The bowling has improved tenfold. To bowl the Lions out of 212 when they were 106 for four was really good, and if we could have set them 180 in the second innings it would have been very interesting,” Walter said.