Ken Borland

Aiden Markram underlined what an excellent prospect he is as he cruised to an unbeaten 210 to lead Assupol Tuks to a comprehensive 154-run victory over United CC on the third day of the Momentum National Club Championships at Sinovich Park yesterday.

Markram not only made the first double-century of his fledgling, exciting career but also broke the previous record for the highest score in the National Club Championships – Blake Snijman’s 204 for the University of Johannesburg in 2006/7.

It was a commanding innings – coming off just 153 balls with 14 fours and three sixes – but not without some good fortune as he was dropped twice relatively early on in his knock.

Markram’s superb innings carried Tuks to a massive 377 for two in their 50 overs after they had won the toss and elected to bat first on a lovely sunny day in northern Pretoria.

A depleted United side were not ever going to challenge that, but they showed plenty of spunk in amassing 223 in 48.1 overs, the highest total scored against the two-time defending champions so far this week.

But the day belonged to Markram, a tall and powerful 19-year-old who hits the ball hard, but concentrates on playing straight. An impressive 106 of his runs came in the “V” straight down the ground and the ICC U19 World Cup-winning captain is clearly an amazing talent.

“I know Blake Snijman had the record so it’s nice to beat a high-profile cricketer like him, but in the end you do it for the team and we’re glad we got the bonus point.

“I was dropped a couple of times, so I was lucky, and it was a nice deck to bat on,” a modest Markram said after his epic innings.

After the early loss of Murray Coetzee, caught behind by Jason van Zyl off Thoza Neku for six, Markram enjoyed the considerable support of Johan Wessels (80 off 94 balls) in a run-a-ball second-wicket stand of 189, and then the lively assistance of Graeme van Buuren (73 not out off just 49 deliveries) in powering Tuks to the highest score of this year’s tournament thus far. Markram and Van Buuren added 168 off only 101 balls to end the carnage.

United are already missing a couple of players due to injury, and the loss of opening bowler Bevan Jonker after he bowled just five overs yesterday did not help their cause either.

But they made a brave start to their near-impossible run-chase, Marvin Lazarus slamming 35 off 18 balls, while Bevan Bennett scored 31 and Marco Marais 38 as they reached a hundred in the 20^th over, an over quicker than the Pretoria students had managed!

But it obviously could not last and lanky off-spinner Ruben Claasen, who married tremendous determination to the turn and bounce he obtained, claimed three for 41 in 10 overs in the middle of the innings to settle the contest.

With pacemen Tian Koekemoer and the tidy Corbin Bosch each picking up a pair of wickets, it was left to Romano Esau to provide some late cheer for the Border champions with 43 off 46 deliveries.

Elsewhere in Section Two, Maties coolly chased down a tricky target against Cape Town Cricket Club to win by four wickets and set up a crunch game against Tuks today at Irene Villagers.

The Stellenbosch students have also been in top-class form this week and today’s encounter against their Pretoria arch-rivals could be a decisive one in terms of who qualifies for Monday’s final at SuperSport Park.

Kempton Park won again yesterday, beating NMMU George by eight wickets and they still have a chance of qualifying, provided Tuks slip up somewhere and the Easterns champions beat Cape Town CC and Maties over the last two days.

Results

Section One: Crusaders 191-9 (Ruben Hattingh 49 not out) NMMU PE Madibaz 194-4 (Lloyd Brown 52 not out, Peter Furstenburg 47) NMMU PE Madibaz won by six wickets. University of Free State Kovsies 266 (Jacobus Dreyer 76, Andries Gous 56; Jan Frylinck 5-45) West End 190 (Gerhardt Abrahams 71, Gihahn Cloete 58) University of Free State Kovsies won by 76 runs. University of Jhb 336-9 (Jaden Broodryk 93, Matt McGillivray 136; Garnett Kruger 6-44) NWU Pukke 322-8 (Righardt Frenz 58,Wihan Lubbe 127) University of Jhb won by 14 runs.

Section Two: Tuks 377-2 (Aiden Markram 210 not out, Johan Wessels 80, Graeme van Buuren 73 not out) United CC 223 (Romano Esau 43) Tuks won by 154 runs. NMMU George 121 (Nico de Klerk 4-17) Kempton Park 126-2 (Wesley Marshall 68 not out) Kempton Park won by eight wickets. Cape Town CC 155 Maties 157-6 (Philippus van Vuuren 74) Maties won by four wickets.

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.

Qaasim Adams and Mangaliso Mosehle scored half-centuries and led the Unlimited Titans to a commanding position on the third day of their Sunfoil Series match against the Knights at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Saturday.

Adams and Mosehle added 105 for the fifth wicket, in just over two hours and off 163 balls, and allowed the Titans to declare their second innings on 286 for seven midway through the final session.

The Titans began the third day by wrapping up the Knights first innings for 218, Marchant de Lange having Werner Coetsee (57) and Corne Dry (1) caught behind the wicket in the space of 17 balls, giving them a first-innings lead of 148.

That meant the Knights were left with a daunting target of 435 for victory and they had reached 32 without loss when bad light stopped play with six overs left to be bowled. Openers Reeza Hendricks (16*) and Gihahn Cloete (15*) had done a good job in surviving for close to an hour.

Adams was the star of the day in scoring 84, starting his innings patiently as he came in with the Titans in danger of a wobble on 72 for three.

But by midway through the afternoon, he was bristling with intent as he collected 10 fours and two sixes in setting up the declaration. He was involved in a tremendous tussle with fiery Knights fast bowler Johan van der Wath, which required the intervention of the umpires at one stage, and it was the veteran who eventually removed him.

The left-handed Adams had started his innings relying on clever deflections for runs, but by the end he was unselfishly freeing his arms and hitting out and the slow pitch which has been the bane of strokeplay throughout the game eventually proved his undoing as he failed to clear deep mid-on with a lofted drive.

The Knights were battered by Adams and were run off their feet by Mosehle, who scored a sprightly 56 off 79 balls.

The wicketkeeper/batsman’s innings was also crucial as the Titans were in danger of wasting their first-innings advantage when he came to the crease on 106 for four, the lead being 254.

Titans openers Heino Kuhn and Ernest Kemm were both dismissed for eight, bowled by Van der Wath and caught in the slips off Corne Dry respectively, but captain Henry Davids (33) and Roelof van der Merwe (29) then set about the bowling in positive fashion.

Both were well set to completely take the game away from the Knights, but both contrived to get themselves out in rather soft fashion.

Van der Merwe skewed an ambitious drive on the up off Dry to mid-on, while Davids skied a shortish ball from Malusi Siboto straight to fine leg.

With the log-leading Cape Cobras needing eight wickets on the final day to beat the Warriors, the Knights, already trailing by 9.08 points, are going to have to produce something special to stay in contention for the title. They will need to score another 403 runs in 96 overs today to beat the Titans and stay in touch with the defending champions.

The hesitant, flatfooted Unlimited Titans batsmen succumbed meekly on the third day as the bizhub Highveld Lions beat them by eight wickets in their Sunfoil Series match at the BidVest Wanderers Stadium on Saturday.

The Lions batsmen kept their cool far better on a tricky Wanderers pitch, posting 212 in their first innings to claim a 65-run lead, and then bowling the Titans out for a meagre 110 in their second innings on Saturday.

That left the southern Gauteng team with a target of just 46 for victory and they knocked those runs off for the loss of two wickets in just 9.5 overs, captain Stephen Cook scoring 29 not out.

The gentle medium-pace of Brett Pelser was once again the undoing of the Titans as the all-rounder claimed three for 16 in 9.2 overs for superb match figures of seven for 44.

Were it not for the fine resistance offered by Farhaan Behardien, who scored 63, the Titans would have been seen off a long time before the eventual finish two minutes before the scheduled lunch break.

The technically poor Titans batsmen were obviously poorly equipped to handle a probing, disciplined Lions attack, in which left-armer Cliffe Deacon claimed three for 30 on Saturday, for six wickets in the match, and Hardus Viljoen took two for 19.