Ken Borland

AB de Villiers batted with all his former panache and authority upon his return to the domestic scene as he steered the Titans to a commanding seven-wicket win with 21.5 overs to spare over the Warriors in their Momentum One-Day Cup match at Willowmoore Park in Benoni on Tuesday.

The bonus point win returns the Titans to the top of the standings, leading the Dolphins by four points ahead of the final round of fixtures.

While the Titans will host the fading Cape Cobras at Centurion on Thursday, the KwaZulu-Natalians face the daunting task of beating the Knights with a bonus point in Durban in order to claim first place and a home final. And obviously the Cobras must beat the Titans.

While de Villiers utterly dominated the Warriors attack as he stroked a sublime 75 not out off 62 balls, the Titans were only chasing 148 thanks to the brilliant work of their attack, with another returning international, Chris Morris, leading the way with three for 30 in eight overs.

Morris set the tone as his second ball of the match curved like a bow and bowled Gihahn Cloete for a first-ball duck.

With Morris conceding just nine runs in his first four overs, Lungi Ngidi then put the Warriors further back with a double-strike in the sixth over.

Colin Ingram (4) latched on to a poor, short ball down leg, but swung it in the air to fine leg, where Junior Dala made good ground around the boundary and took a super catch.

Ngidi then produced a beauty four balls later to have Colin Ackermann caught behind for a duck, getting bounce and away movement from an excellent length.

Having won the toss and elected to bat, the Warriors were 18 for three inside the first half-hour, but Jon-Jon Smuts and Yaseen Vallie then added 66 for the fourth wicket. It wasn’t hang-on-to-your-hats breathtakingly quick, coming off 87 deliveries, but it did stop the bleeding.

Smuts, coming off successive centuries, scored 39 before getting a little tickle on a Malusi Siboto delivery that was sliding down leg and being well caught by wicketkeeper Heino Kuhn, and off-spinner Aiden Markram then won a short battle with Lesiba Ngoepe, having him smartly stumped by Kuhn for two.

Morris then returned to deliver another top-class spell of fast swing bowling, Vallie, who had scrapped his way to a dogged 44 off 61 balls, being caught behind and then Kelly Smuts being bowled for a duck as he shouldered arms to a superb delivery to the left-hander from over the wicket, pitching off and then swinging enough to hit the off stump.

The Warriors were a parlous 117 for seven, but Jerry Nqolo added 26 to the total and there was 16 from Andrew Birch before the visitors ran out of luck on 147 all out, Dala claiming two wickets with short balls and Ngidi picking up a third as he finished with fine figures of three for 32 in eight overs.

Wrist-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi was able to build on the pressure created by the pacemen as he squeezed the Warriors batsmen further by bowling his 10 overs for just 28 runs.

The star attraction De Villiers came to the crease with the Warriors still in the game, having just reduced the Titans to 47 for two, Birch striking early by having Jonathan Vandiar caught in the slips for one, and Aya Gqamane then dismissing Kuhn for a busy 23.

De Villiers was dazzling from the outset, hitting his second and third deliveries for sumptuous boundaries and, even though Aiden Markram being bowled by a grubber from Birch for 23 in the next over provided some food for thought, the global superstar just cruised through the rest of the innings.

There were seven fours and a six in his 40-ball fifty, as De Villiers covered the entire map of the Willowmoore Park outfield with strokes of extraordinary placement and timing; Farhaan Behardien but a support act as he made 24 not out in their unbeaten stand of 87 off 94 balls.

De Villiers finished with 75 not out off 62 deliveries, with 10 fours and a six, proving once again that he has more talent in his big toe than most batsmen on their best day.

http://citizen.co.za/sport/sport-cricket/1464011/ab-de-villiers-returns-to-former-glory/

Willowmoore Park in Benoni will play host on Friday night to the top-of-the-log CSA T20 Challenge clash between the Titans and the Knights, with Titans captain Albie Morkel leading his high-flying team at the ground where it all started for him back in 1999, and currently enjoying great individual form.

The Titans have won both their opening games with Morkel playing pivotal roles: first with the ball against the Highveld Lions when he claimed three for 12 in four outstanding overs, and then on Wednesday night with the bat when he steered his team to victory over the Cape Cobras with 34 not out off 16 balls.

“Albie sometimes plays himself down, but he’s a very valuable cricketer and the head of the side. He wants those pressure situations and he showed that again against the Cobras, winning the game for us with the bat, having done it with the ball in the previous game,” Titans coach Mark Boucher told The Citizen on Thursday.

Heinrich Klaasen, who was pushed up the order to open against the Cobras with some success as he scored 46, is likely to be partnered by Grant Mokoena on Friday as Henry Davids has strained a hamstring.

“We’ve been under pressure in both games because we lost a couple of quick wickets up front, but we still managed to get the middle-order firing. So it will be very exciting if we can get a good start,” Boucher noted.

Willowmoore Park has thrown up more than her fair share of tricky pitches for batsmen – in last season’s game in Benoni against the Knights, the Titans could only manage 136 for nine and were beaten by a spectacular all-round performance by West Indian Andre Russell (4-11 & 66*).

Russell is no longer in the Knights team but they have star quality in returning captain Theunis de Bruyn, fast bowlers Marchant de Lange and Duanne Olivier, and middle-order batting star David Miller.

“I just want a good cricket wicket for us to hopefully take advantage of, we’ve got both pace and spin covered. This is one game I’m really looking forward to because the Knights beat us in the four-day competition and they look like a side that will challenge for top spot. So we will be tested and we need good intensity,” Boucher said.

Friday night’s other game is in the fairest Cape, although there will be no love lost between the Cobras and the Warriors as they clash at Newlands.

The embattled Cobras have lost both their T20 games thus far, heaping more pressure on themselves, and they will be desperate to get their first win of the season in any format.

The Cape Cobras confirmed themselves as the team to beat in the Momentum One-Day Cup when they hammered the defending champion Unlimited Titans by 113 runs at Willowmoore Park in Benoni on Friday night.

The Cobras had been sent in to bat and struggled along to 83 for two in 22 overs before lightning and then rain forced the players off the field for 75 minutes. The delay served as a major disruption for the Titans, who came back lacking intensity, bowled poorly and saw the Cobras amass 237 for five in the 42 overs now allotted to them.

As poorly as the Titans bowled on a pitch offering substantial assistance to the bowlers, their batting was even worse as they subsided to 133 all out and their biggest ever defeat at the hands of the Cobras.

In retrospect, it was also silly of them to choose eight specialist batsmen and only two fast bowlers in Junior Dala and Lungi Ngidi, with the Cobras’ pace quartet of Beuran Hendricks, Tshepo Moreki, Dane Paterson and Wayne Parnell showing up the opposition with the way they bowled.

Off-spinner Henry Davids produced a top-class spell up front for the Titans, bowling seven overs for 16 runs, and Ngidi and Dala were impressive with the new ball, each claiming a wicket.

Parnell (6) edged a cramped stroke into his own stumps when Ngidi gained extra bounce and nipped one back into the left-hander, while Andrew Puttick (22) was bowled by a tremendous delivery from Dala, beaten for pace as the ball jagged back to hit the top of off-stump.

It was hard going for the Cobras, but Omphile Ramela and Stiaan van Zyl had just raised a fifty partnership off 60 balls when the rain came.

Davids returned with the ball once play resumed and, in his second over back, he claimed the prized wicket of Van Zyl, lbw for 28 as the left-hander was deceived by the flight and missed a power-sweep. Davids finished with one for 24 in his nine overs and was one of the few Titans bowlers who could brag to the wife about his performance.

Ramela found an excellent partner in captain Justin Ontong and was content to go to his half-century in a measured 74 balls, before Dala took a superb return catch, diving forward, to dismiss him for 53.

The Cobras were 149 for four with just eight overs left in their curtailed innings, but that’s when the visitors would break the shackles thanks to Ontong and Dane Vilas.

Ramela’s dismissal would also mark the start of the final powerplay and 88 runs were bashed from those eight overs.

Ontong was particularly mean to medium-pacer Grant Thomson in the 40^th over, hitting him for two fours and two sixes, in alternating blows, as he raised the 200, the fifty partnership off just 32 deliveries with Vilas, and his own run-a-ball half-century.

Thomson eventually had Ontong stumped – thanks to brilliant work by wicketkeeper Mangaliso Mosehle standing up – for 65 off 53 balls to end the over, but it would not mean much respite as Vilas finished in style with a six and a four off Dala in the final over as he raced to 46 not out off just 23 deliveries, with three sixes.

The rain delay close to midway through the innings would mean the Duckworth/Lewis equation would adjust the target upwards and the Titans were left with 247 to win in 42 overs.

But left-arm quick Hendricks made huge inroads with the new ball, having Davids caught down the leg-side, thanks to extra bounce, for a four-ball duck and then having Theunis de Bruyn (14) also caught behind with a fine swinging delivery.

The introduction of Moreki in the 10^th over was one of those inspired changes that make captains very happy as the nippy 22-year-old bowled Mosehle for 14 with his second delivery.

Dean Elgar (8) and Graeme van Buuren, who was the only Titans batsman to impress, stroking five fours and making 40 off 36 balls, were both caught behind by Vilas off Moreki, giving the former Dolphins paceman three for 26 in seven impressive overs and career-best figures in the Momentum One-Day Cup.

And Hendricks would also claim a career-best as he removed Qaasim Adams (3), Heinrich Klaasen (4) and last man Ngidi (4) and finished with outstanding figures of five for 31, the third-best figures for the Cobras in the competition and best against the Titans, just edging ahead of Monde Zondeki’s five for 32 at Newlands in 2006/7.

Thomson was run out for 13 and off-spinner Dane Piedt chipped in with the wicket of Tabraiz Shamsi (13) as they made their second-lowest total ever against the Cobras.

The Titans are languishing in fifth place on the log, on 13 points after eight games, and they will be reliant on other results going their way, while beating the Dolphins and Highveld Lions in their last two games, if they are to make the playoffs.

The Cobras, with the way the ball talked for their bowlers and their batsmen posted an impressive total in a bonus point win, have no such worries.

http://www.citizen.co.za/979293/cobras-confirm-themselves-as-team-to-beat/

In the last week my job as a cricket writer has taken me to Willowmoore Park in Benoni twice, to the Mamelodi Oval once and to the glamour and glitz of the national team’s World Cup send-off at Melrose Arch once.

While the Mamelodi Oval is rapidly becoming one of my favourite grounds – it has a beautiful setting in the Magaliesburg hills, the local community is obviously proud of the ground and facilities have improved with every visit there, I am largely cynical about how much the Melrose Arch razzmatazz will do for our World Cup chances and, frankly, I will be happy if I never have to go back to Willowmoore Park again.

That’s because half the games in Benoni are disrupted by the awful facilities at that ground. On Thursday night, it was embarrassing to see South Africa A and the England Lions tourists have to hang around and wait for over half-an-hour while an electrician was found to get the floodlights working properly.

For the Titans, Willowmoore Park has become an infuriating home ground for them.

Last weekend, a short 20-minute shower nearly led to their Momentum One-Day Cup game being abandoned due to the shocking drainage at the ground, not helped by the ground staff pouring the water that had accumulated on the covers on to an already wet patch.

The potential loss of points would have been critical for the Titans in their efforts to secure a home playoff, while the match being shortened to 20 overs due to the delay was hugely prejudicial to them because it meant the Highveld Lions had all 10 wickets in hand for just a short run-chase.

Fortunately the Lions batsmen were terrible and the Titans still won, but they had a match abandoned, losing all the points, in November due to a sub-standard, dangerous pitch. Several Titans players have suffered hand injuries due to similar pitches at the ground.

India had a warm-up game there in December 2013 cancelled due to the field being wet despite Benoni being bathed in bright sunshine for three days and it’s well-known that even the slightest bit of rain at Willowmoore Park causes major delays.

Simply put, Willowmoore Park is a disgrace. A prehistoric looking super-sopper, with practically no sponge left on the roller, merely shifts the water around the field; a rope is sometimes driven around the ground by the groundsman in a battered old car. Compared to Mamelodi, there seems to be a complete lack of pride in the venue, a distinct attitude of “who cares?” when it comes to maintaining the facility.

Top-class cricket should be taken away from Benoni by Cricket South Africa to ensure that franchises and international touring teams are given the facilities they deserve. It’s sad that a ground that has been operational since 1924 and was made famous by Denis Compton’s triple-century in three hours for England against North-Eastern Transvaal in 1948 has fallen into such disrepair.

I would even suggest moving games scheduled for Willowmoore Park to the Mamelodi Oval, which is also going to help transformation, and channelling the considerable amounts of money poured down the drain or simply not used in Benoni to that ground.

It’s probably not going to happen for political reasons though. Easterns cricket will bring their vastly overinflated influence in the CSA boardroom into play and let’s not forget that the murky hand of the Guptas is probably most strongly present at Willowmoore Park.