AB de Villiers (48) and Farhaan Behardien (36) led a Titans rampage to a 56-run win over the Warriors in a rain-shortened match in Benoni.
In a match reduced to 13 overs a side, the Titans responded as best they know how after being sent in to bat: Dean Elgar and Henry Davids putting on 57 for the first wicket in 5.3 overs. Elgar fell first on 44 off 23 (4×4, 3×6), followed two overs later by Davids on 23 off 16, with the score on 73.
De Villiers then stepped in to smash 48 off 19 balls with four fours and four sixes. He was dismissed by Basheeru-Deen Walters off the last ball of an over from which he had already plundered 20 runs.
Behardien then slotted in seamlessly, taking just 12 balls to run up 36, with four sixes – a strike rate of 300 – as he saw the Titans to a total of 172; a total which would have been impressive off 20 overs, let alone 13. With an important injection of 16 off nine balls from Heinrich Klaasen, the Titans hadregistered a run rate of 13.23.
The Warriors were in no position to build an innings. Jon-Jon Smuts anchored the early effort but he was never able to build a partnership as Yaseen Vallie (10) and Colin Ingram (13) fell to Malusi Siboto and David Wiese.
Tabraiz Shamsi then struck rapidly with his left-arm spin, ending Smuts’ stand of 53 from 30 balls, and then taking out Colin Ackermann (7) and Christian Jonker (7) in the 10th over. And that was that as the Warriors collapsed to 116-9.
The Titan have extended their lead to 16 points, with the Cobras in second on 14 points after their washout in Durban.
Photo: Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix
