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.

A brilliant all-round bowling display by the Knights forced the Highveld Lions batsmen to sell their wickets cheaply, but it wasn’t enough to secure victory for the Central franchise as bad light and rain left them to accept a draw in their four-day domestic series match at the Wanderers on Sunday.

The Lions had resumed their first innings on 54 for two on the final day, but the excellent, probing bowling of the Knights pacemen enabled them to tear through the home side’s batting line-up, dismissing them for a paltry 121 on the stroke of lunch.

Quinton Friend ran through the lower-order to finish with four for 35 in 13 overs, but it was cunning fast-medium bowler Malusi Siboto who made the most telling strikes by removing Devon Conway (10) and captain Stephen Cook (45) on his way to fine figures of two for 17 in 12 overs.

Off-spinner Werner Coetsee then struck twice in two overs to finish the Lions innings.

With the probing Knights bowling getting the most out of a Wanderers pitch that was producing some tricks, the Lions were under pressure to save the game as they came out to bat again after lunch in their follow-on innings, trailing by 208 runs with 72 overs left in the day.

Fast bowler Corne Dry then produced a vituperative opening spell in which he took two for two in six overs, having both Cook and Dominic Hendricks caught by the sharp Rilee Rossouw in the slips.

Temba Bavuma saw off the pacemen for the next hour, but Knights captain Coetsee dismissed him with his first ball in the second innings. The diminutive batsman had scored 25 when he pushed forward to a delivery that had some air, edging a low catch to slip which Rossouw claimed nonchalantly, making it look far easier than it was.

Neil McKenzie batted for 80 minutes with grim determination, scoring just three off 50 balls, while Conway joined him for half-an-hour, taking the Lions to 54 for three before the weather turned for the worse for the Knights.

Dark clouds first of all forced the players off for bad light at 2.50pm, followed by torrential rain which caused the match to be called off.

The Cape Cobras, led by off-spinner Dane Piedt, saw off an improved batting performance by the Titans as they won their four-day domestic series match by 211 runs on the fourth and final day at Boland Park in Paarl on Sunday.

The Titans, chasing an unlikely 444 for victory, resumed on 62 for two and the cancellation of the gritty 53-run third-wicket stand happened six overs into the day when Rory Kleinveldt trapped Graeme van Buuren lbw for 23.

Piedt followed up immediately with the wicket of Qaasim Adams for a duck, but the resistance of Heino Kuhn (69) continued until two overs after the drinks break when seamer Dane Paterson had him caught in the slips by Justin Kemp.

There was obviously more determination in the Titans middle-order than in the first innings, when they lost their last seven wickets for 23 runs, as Mangaliso Mosehle (26) batted for an hour-and-a-half and Shaun von Berg dug in for nearly two hours as he also scored 26.

Roelof van der Merwe was the best of the Titans batsmen on the final day, however, as he scored 51 in 128 minutes of resistance, but it was never going to be enough to avoid a heavy defeat for the visitors.

Piedt produced a top-class display of spin bowling in helpful conditions as he took six for 100 in 34.2 overs, while Kleinveldt chipped in with two for 55 to finish with a nine-wicket haul from the match.

Paterson and fellow seamer Travis Muller each took a wicket as well.

The Cobras’ victory deals a hammer blow to the rest of the teams in the four-day domestic series as it means the defending champions now lead by nearly 17 points with just three rounds remaining.

The Knights are in second place, while the Dolphins have moved into third, managing to overtake the Lions, nearly 11 points behind the Central franchise.

The loss, their fourth in seventh matches this season, has condemned the Titans to the bottom of the log, trailing the Warriors by two points.