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.

Henry Davids and Roelof van der Merwe were the men who did most of the damage as the Nashua Titans hammered the New Age Impi by nine wickets with 26 balls to spare in their MiWay T20 Challenge match at Willowmoore Park in Benoni on Sunday.

 http://www.supersport.com/cricket/domestic-t20/news/120226/Davids_vd_Merwe_destroy_the_Impi

Van der Merwe destroyed the New Age Impi middle-order as the Titans bowled them out for just 131, before Davids hit a whirlwind 55 off 35 balls to rush the “visitors” to victory.

The New Age Impi experiment has battled to get off the ground with the composite side crashing to their fifth straight defeat and only a meagre crowd coming to watch in Benoni, where the Titans of course play often.

Apart from Davids, Jacques Rudolph and Van der Merwe also enjoyed themselves with the bat, retiring to the changeroom with 47 not out and 30 not out respectively after the bonus-point victory was completed.

Left-handed Rudolph anchored the innings as he scored his runs off 39 balls, with three fours and two sixes, while Van der Merwe lashed three fours and a six from 20 deliveries.

But it was Davids who stole the show with a top-class innings, a delightful display of footwork and superb timing as he stroked seven fours and two sixes.

It was like the old pro against the interns as he moved around his crease and found the gaps at will, notching a 26-ball half-century before chipping offspinner Khaya Zondo to midwicket, where Paul Collingwood took a fine catch diving forward.

That left the Titans on 78 for one in the 10th over and in complete control, Rudolph and Van der Merwe completing the formalities as they added 59 in 39 balls.

The New Age Impi seamers were unimpressive and captain Collingwood needed to turn to the slower bowlers, with left-arm spinner Siyabulela Simetu continuing the good impression he has made in the competition as he took the new ball and conceded just 23 runs in his four overs.

The Impi had won the toss and elected to bat first for the first time in the campaign, and Zondo and Collingwood had given the innings a solid foundation as they put on 51 for the third wicket off 41 balls.

The Impi’s problems, as is so often the case, began with a run out, and Van der Merwe was the architect, defeating the batsmen’s efforts for a second run as he rushed in from the midwicket boundary and scored a direct hit at the bowler’s end to remove Collingwood for a bright 28 off 18 balls.

Zondo was still there, though, having come in first-wicket down and watched as another Englishman, Luke Wright, also scored 28 off 18 balls to give the Impi a quick start.

But 92 for three quickly became 99 for six as Ryan ten Doeschate chopped on off David Wiese for just a single, and Van der Merwe removed Zondo and Richard Cameron off successive deliveries.

Zondo, who scored 33 off 31 balls, backed away to try and cut the left-arm spinner, but was off-balance and only succeeded in edging a catch to sharp wicketkeeper Heino Kuhn, who had earlier stumped opener Adrian McLaren for four in Van der Merwe’s first over.

Cameron then chipped his first ball straight to extra cover and, although Ryan Canning ensured that there would be no hat-trick for Van der Merwe, he could not find the boundary as he was the last man out for 17 off 21 balls.

Van der Merwe finished his quota of overs with excellent figures of three for 28 and his fantastic fielding netted him another run-out, dismissing Simetu for five in the penultimate over.

The 27-year-old has not played for South Africa in over 18 months, but continues to send good messages to the national selectors, having now taken five for 91 in 14 overs in this season’s T20 Challenge.

Off-spinner Eden Links also had a profitable afternoon with two for 21 in his four overs, while seamer Wiese came on in the 12th over and was not easy to get away as he took one for 13 in three overs.

The Titans will be unhappy that their fielding at the start of the innings was not up to scratch, a couple of catches going down, but, led by the indomitable Van der Merwe, they eventually got the job done in some style.