Ken Borland

The interlinking talents of batting and spin bowling will give the Unlimited Titans plenty of options in their opening Sunfoil Series match against the bizhub Highveld Lions starting at the Wanderers on Thursday.

Coach Rob Walter on Tuesday named eight frontline batsmen in his squad of 13 and four of those – Roelof van der Merwe, Henry Davids, Dean Elgar and Graeme van Buuren – are handy spinners who will be able to back up leg-spinner Shaun von Berg.

With Elgar and Heino Kuhn set to open the batting, and Farhaan Behardien and captain Henry Davids filling the middle-order, there are spots up for grab at numbers three and six. Theunis de Bruyn is one for the future at three, while Van der Merwe was the Titans’ leading run-scorer in the Sunfoil Series last season and probably has the inside lane for number six.

Fortunately, Walter is spoilt for choice in terms of batsmen.

“Watching the guys bat in the nets, there’s nobody who needs any extra work, everyone is looking in very good touch. Most of them have had game-time in the middle and now it’s just a case of executing and being mentally switched on,” Walter told The Citizen on Tuesday.

The Lions hammered the Titans in both their four-day matches last season and their fiery bowling attack, in particular, has troubled the batsmen.

“The Lions are really a very good four-day team, they have a great balance in terms of batting and bowling, and they should be contenders if they play to their strength. We lost twice to them last season, so we definitely have to raise our game,” Walter acknowledged.

The biggest focus for the Titans will be their batting because none of the frontline batsmen were able to get a century – Von Berg thrashing an unbeaten 105 off just 73 balls in a drawn game against the Cobras in Benoni, the fastest ton in franchise four-day history.

But their bowlers also had their inconsistencies last season and Walter is delighted that fast bowler Marchant de Lange is ready for action from the start of this campaign.

“It’s great to have a strike bowler like that available, especially after his successes with the SA A team that went to Australia, and I’m looking forward to seeing him in action,” the coach said.

In the absence of all-rounders David Wiese and Albie Morkel, both of whom are out with ankle injuries, De Lange will look to left-armer Rowan Richards and veteran Ethy Mbhalati for support with the new ball, while De Bruyn and Behardien are able to provide some medium-pace seamers as well.

Squad: Dean Elgar, Heino Kuhn, Theunis de Bruyn, Farhaan Behardien, Henry Davids, Roelof van der Merwe, Mangaliso Mosehle, Shaun von Berg, Marchant de Lange, Rowan Richards, Ethy Mbhalati, Qaasim Adams, Graeme van Buuren.

It will be back to the drawing board for the Unlimited Titans batsmen after bizhub Highveld Lions fast bowler Hardus Viljoen took seven for 32 to consign them to a 190-run defeat in their opening Sunfoil Series match at the Wanderers on Sunday.

The Titans were dismissed for just 169 in their second innings, having staggered to 197 in their first knock, and their top-order batsmen will be under the spotlight as they showed no improvement from last season when none of them managed to score a four-day century.

“We have to get up now for our game against the Warriors in Benoni on Thursday and the batsmen have to fight tooth and nail. When you lose your first game, the only way is up,” disappointed Titans captain Farhaan Behardien said after the defeat.

Behardien could be counted as the only real batting success for the Titans as he scored 58 and 71 not out, but he lacked support, with wicketkeeper/batsman Mangaliso Mosehle the next heaviest scorer for the visitors with innings of 35 and 42.

Having surrendered a first-innings lead of 204, the Titans were set 360 for victory but batting out three-and-a-half sessions was a far more accurate description of the challenge before them.

And when Chris Morris reduced them to 50 for four overnight, the only sensible prediction for the fourth day was a comfortable Lions victory.

And Viljoen ensured that was the case soon after lunch as his exceptional performance garnered him his best ever Sunfoil Series figures, beating the six for 24 he claimed in the match between the same sides in Benoni two seasons ago.

“In the past I’ve been a bit expensive with my bowling but now I want to concede less than three runs an over. All the top international bowlers do that and build pressure. I want to keep my economy rate down and hit good areas.

“Last year I was trying to swing the ball, so I wasn’t hitting the deck. I’m not a swing bowler, that took away my aggression,” Viljoen said after his fiery performance.

There was a brief intermission to the Viljoen-inspired carnage when Behardien and Mosehle added 81 for the seventh wicket in 20 overs, but Viljoen ended that in the final over before lunch when he drew Mosehle into playing at a super delivery that kicked away to find the edge, wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock moving smartly to claim a low catch, one of eight he took in the match.

Viljoen certainly found the right lengths on a typical Wanderers pitch that becomes more up-and-down as the match progresses, and he was superbly supported by his three fellow pace bowlers – Morris, Kagiso Rabada and Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

“I’m very happy, I’ll take that start to the season any day. After all the plotting and planning, the training and all the hard work, it’s great when it goes better than expected,” Lions captain Stephen Cook said.

“To have those four fast bowlers is fantastic, it was maybe a risk not to play a specialist spinner and when a few turned past me on day one, I was wondering if it was the right decision. But this Wanderers pitch seems to stop turning and goes more up and down on days three and four, and those are four quality pacemen who all bring something different,” the Lions opener said.

The most immediate problem for the Titans to sort out is the fact that they were off to awful starts in both innings – 47 for four in the first and 28 for four in the second.

“Our start is key and unfortunately we gave the fast bowlers an early sniff in both innings. We have to have a better foundation up front, we need someone to make a hundred. When you’re up against a pace attack like that, you’ve got to get them into their third or fourth spells, you’ve got to build partnerships,” Behardien said.

Three batsmen caught behind down the leg-side and two stuck in their creases and trapped lbw was the sorry tale of the Unlimited Titans first-innings batting on the second day of their Sunfoil Series match against the bizhub Highveld Lions at the Wanderers on Friday.

With the formidable four-man Lions pace attack all hitting their straps, the Titans struggled to 158 for five at stumps, replying to the home side’s first innings of 401.

That the Lions managed to reach that total after being 271 for five overnight was largely due to Kagiso Rabada hitting an impressive 48 not out at number 10, while the rest of the lower-order all dug in to reach double figures.

The 19-year-old Rabada, batting for just the fourth time in the four-day competition (his previous innings have been 0, 3* & 0), showed tremendous composure and plenty of potential with the bat as he hit six fours and two sixes, generally using the straightest of bats.

The Titans had started the second morning well with the third over of the day bringing the wicket of Thami Tsolekile for 31, failing to pull off the hook shot against the pace of Marchant de Lange.

Devon Conway and Chris Morris (16) added 35 for the seventh wicket before the latter edged the left-arm seam of Rowan Richards into the slips, and leg-spinner Shaun von Berg claimed the wicket of Conway (24) in the next over.

The Lions were then seemingly on track to waste the strong start to the innings given to them by Temba Bavuma (84) as they slipped to 321 for eight. But Rabada and Hardus Viljoen (23) added 53 for the ninth wicket and Lonwabo Tsotsobe (10) helped add another 17 for the last wicket, but couldn’t hold out long enough for Rabada to achieve what would have been a richly-deserved maiden half-century.

The ease with which the Lions lower-order batted in the morning was in stark contrast to how the Titans fared as they came out to bat 40 minutes after lunch, but then again the home side’s pace attack is streets ahead of that of the visitors.

De Lange finished with three wickets for the Titans, but was expensive, conceding 114 runs in his 28 overs, while Richards took two for 64 in 20.1 overs and Ethy Mbhalati was wicketless for 64 runs in 24 overs.

Von Berg picked up three wickets and went for 87 runs in his 37 overs, the most admirable effort amongst the Titans bowlers.

The Titans top-order soon found themselves in deep trouble on 47 for four. Instead of being workers of the new ball, they tried too many aggressive strokes and paid the price.

Credit must go to the Lions attack because they put the Titans under pressure with some fine pace bowling, even if some of the wicket-taking deliveries themselves were no great shakes.

Dean Elgar clipped Viljoen for four through midwicket but then shouldered arms to the next delivery, which was straight and swung back, and the left-hander was on his way practically before the umpire put his finger up.

Four balls later, Heino Kuhn flapped loosely at a short delivery down the leg-side from Tsotsobe and was caught behind for a duck, but young Theunis de Bruyn seemed to be stepping up to the plate as he stroked six boundaries in cruising to 30.

Rabada, who gradually upped his pace to impressive levels as the innings progressed, had Qaasim Adams (8) splendidly caught down the leg-side by diving wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock, and when De Bruyn was trapped lbw by Morris, the Titans were up against it on 47 for four.

Some of Roelof van der Merwe’s strokeplay may not be suitable for posters of batsmen on schoolchildrens’ walls, but the nuggety all-rounder got stuck in as usual and scored a run-a-ball 23 to at least slightly extricate the Titans from the mire they found themselves in.

Disaster struck, however, when the first ball of Tsotsobe’s second spell, a rank loosener shortly after tea, was sliding down leg but took a deflection into wicketkeeper De Kock’s gloves. Umpire Adrian Holdstock was in no doubt that it had come off Van der Merwe’s bat, but there was a strong suggestion in the batsman’s reaction that the ball had only hit pad.

Coming in at 102 for five, it was critical that Mangaliso Mosehle hung around and he played himself in carefully before becoming more expansive in the last hour.

The wicketkeeper/batsman ended the day on 35 not out and helped Farhaan Behardien add 56 for the sixth wicket in 21.2 overs.

Behardien showed the sort of determination and sound judgement expected of a senior batsman, being technically sound and generally not being drawn into loose strokes as he finished the day on 45 not out in 165 minutes. He is a natural strokeplayer, though, and he did manage to collect eight fours from the 103 deliveries he faced.

Behardien and Mosehle will be central to the Titans’ hopes of staying in the game, the deficit a sizeable 243 at the halfway stage of the opening four-day match of the season.

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.