Ken Borland

Geoff Boycott certainly would not approve, but the Unlimited Titans took to the field on the first day of domestic action without their captain, Henry Davids, who withdrew from the team for their opening Sunfoil Series match against the bizhub Highveld Lions at the Wanderers on Thursday.

It’s not so much that Davids refused to play, but rather that he felt others deserved selection in the batting line-up ahead of him.

Davids has been dealing with a nasty hand injury in the build-up to the season, but played in both the Global Softech Sixes and the Northerns Bash and batted with freedom.

“Henry’s hand is fine, he’s been batting like a champion in the nets, but he asked that Qaasim Adams be selected ahead of him in the interests of the team and of sending the right message as far as our selection process goes. It was on the basis of last season’s performances and a seriously mature decision for the better of the team,” Titans coach Rob Walter confirmed.

The Momentum One-Day Cup begins on October 10 so perhaps Davids will return then; it would probably not be fair to give Adams just one chance and drop him should he fail. Adams scored three half-centuries last season and was one of only three Titans batsmen to amass more than 300 runs in the four-day competition, while Davids struggled to 275 runs in 14 innings at an average of 19.

Perhaps the Titans were rocked by the withdrawal of their captain, Farhaan Behardien taking the reins, as their bowlers seemed rusty and unfocused after the Lions won the toss and elected to bat first on Thursday.

On a pitch that offered some pace and movement for the quick bowlers, it took the Titans 99 minutes to claim their first wicket, Marchant de Lange winning an lbw decision against Rassie van der Dussen (37), even though the ball appeared to be going over the stumps.

Temba Bavuma then came in and produced a top-class innings of 84 in three hours, off 148 deliveries. A short man, Bavuma was nevertheless quick to come forward and his driving, especially straight and through the covers, was a sheer delight.

A second-wicket partnership of 116 in 41-and-a-half overs with captain Stephen Cook put the Lions in control and they had cruised to 171 for one at tea.

But in the second over after the break, leg-spinner Shaun von Berg produced a delivery that scurried straight on off the pitch, and Cook was adjudged lbw for 56. It was an innings that had spanned four hours and 23 minutes and 174 deliveries, the opener collecting six fours, but there were a number of scratchy, unconvincing strokes along the way.

A team with a quality leg-spinner such as Von Berg should never be discounted and the 28-year-old claimed the key wicket of Bavuma four overs later, beating the beautifully-set batsman with a wonderful googly.

There was a notable lift in the field thanks to Von Berg’s efforts and the next wicket came courtesy of a brilliant run out, Heino Kuhn scoring a direct hit from square-leg to remove Dominic Hendricks for five.

That brought international wicketkeepers Quinton de Kock and Thami Tsolekile together.

Tsolekile, a worker of the ball, was content to play second fiddle to De Kock, who breezed to 51 off 61 balls as 51 was added for the fifth wicket, before losing his off stump to a ferocious yorker from De Lange.

Tsolekile will resume on Friday morning on 19 not out, with Devon Conway on seven, with the Lions having subsided from 174 for one to 271 for five in the face of a determined Titans comeback.

While De Lange’s dismissal of De Kock will live long in the memory, Walter will be delighted that the fast bowler was able to deliver 21 overs for 78 runs, taking two wickets, and generally look to be heading in the right direction in his “second coming”.

Walter will be over the moon, however, with the display of Von Berg, who just seemed to pick up from the strong finish to last season.

It’s normally the fast bowlers who prosper on day one at the Wanderers, but Von Berg was the best bowler on show with two for 61 in 26 overs and, judging by the turn he obtained from the outset, he will be even more of a handful on day three or four.

Walter will be hoping that his pacemen will be targeting the stumps a bit more on the second day in an effort to wrap up the Lions first innings in the morning session.

Experienced left-arm spinner Ryan Houbert took three for 22 to lead the Global Gladiators to a 53-run victory over the Nashua Phantoms on the first day of the Northerns Bash at SuperSport Park yesterday, stabbing at the heart of the defending champions’ campaign for a second title in the T20 competition.

Houbert was brought into the attack as early as the third over and removed opener Gerry Pike, to a wonderful, leaping one-handed catch by Ethy Mbhalati at deep mid-on, to immediately undermine the Phantoms’ pursuit of 157 for victory.

The CBC Old Boys 31-year-old then dismissed Jason Brooker (4) and Danie Rossouw  (13) in the 11^th over to leave the Phantoms on 66 for five and well on their way to defeat.

They eventually staggered to 103 all out in 17.2 overs, thanks chiefly to Shaun von Berg scoring 24 not out. Their key batsmen contrived to get themselves out – opener Blake Schraader being run out attempting a crazy second run for 23, Qaasim Adams (10) being bowled by Cobus Pienaar as he swung across the line, and Roelof van der Merwe (8) hoicking Sammy Mofokeng to deep cover.

Medium-pacer Mofokeng was the other bowler to excel for the Gladiators, taking two for 16 in his four overs.

Van der Merwe had earlier produced a superb display of spin bowling at the death to restrict the Gladiators to 156 for five after they had reached 100 for two with seven overs left. The left-arm spinner claimed two for 25 in four overs, while left-arm paceman Rowan Richards grabbed a wicket and was economical, and off-spinner Eden Links also produced a tidy spell of four overs for 27 runs.

A top-class innings of 53 off 51 balls by Ryk Eksteen laid a solid platform for the Gladiators, sharing a second-wicket stand of 54 off 51 deliveries with Lerato Kgoatle (31) and putting on 61 off 43 balls for the third wicket with Farhaan Behardien, who survived a chance on 1 and went on to score 23 off 18.

The second match of the day was also a one-sided affair, with the Tornados beating the Pirates by 51 runs.

Aiden Markram provided the initial momentum up front for the Tornados with his 32 off 19 balls and his fellow Tuks star, Theunis de Bruyn, kept the scoreboard moving with 29 off 20 deliveries.

Titans stars Henry Davids (26) and Mangaliso Mosehle (21) also batted well to take the Tornados to 100 for two after 12 overs, before the innings soured as the Pirates used five spinners to good effect.

Lanky off-spinner Ruben Claassen was the best of the Pirates bowlers as he dismissed Markram, caught behind by Heinrich Klaasen, with his first delivery and conceded just 13 runs in three overs.

David Wiese was also impressive with one for 22 in four overs, but the star of the innings was Graeme van Buuren, who scored 35 not out off 20 balls. He lifted the Tornados from 138 for five at the start of the final over to 162 for five, belting three sixes off wrist-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi.

Fast bowler Gerhard Linde was too much of a handful for the Pirates top-order, removing Jeandre Jumat and Ruan Olivier cheaply, while Corbin Bosch was also impressive with the new ball.

The required run-rate was already over nine when the Pirates’ two best batsman, Klaasen and Wiese, were brought together, and the Tornados bowlers executed their plans well to ensure they could not snatch control away.

Klaasen was dismissed by off-spinner Markram and Wiese was snapped up by Davids, who took two for 10 in three overs to finish the job started by Linde and Bosch.

The Pirates innings eventually closed on 111 for eight.

The Tornados, who boast the strongest batting line-up on paper, now take on the Phantoms, the defending champions who have to win tomorrow to stay in the race.

Scores in brief

Gladiators 156-5 (Lerato Kgoatle 31, Ryk Eksteen 53, Farhaan Behardien 23; Roelof van der Merwe 2-25). Phantoms 103 (Blake Schraader 23, Shaun von Berg 24*; Sammy Mofokeng 2-16, Ryan Houbert 3-22). Gladiators won by 53 runs.

Tornados 162-5 (Henry Davids 26, Aiden Markram 32, Theunis de Bruyn 29, Mangaliso Mosehle 21, Graeme van Buuren 35*). Pirates 111-8 (Shershan Naidoo 33, David Wiese 24; Gerhard Linde 2-13, Henry Davids 2-10). Tornados won by 51 runs.

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.