At the age of 37, Henry Davids is playing like a kid again. That’s not to say he’s being irresponsible just that he’s been able to marry skill, adventure and discipline in a neat blend that in the opening few weeks of the Momentum One-Day Cup has made him the competition’s top run-scorer.
Davids’ approach in the limited overs formats has always been an aggressive one, but to start this season’s 50-over tournament, he’s shown some excellent form. Scores of 87, followed by 163 and then 63 last Sunday, have Davids comfortably atop the run-scoring charts with 313. Those runs have been scored at a strike rate of 106.46.
“It’s just nice that everything has come together,” he chuckled. “I feel like I’ve been hitting the ball well all season, but in the Sunfoil I got just the one score of 150 even though I got starts. I just never converted enough, which was irritating.”
No real technical adjustments were needed, just a tweak to his mindset. Now in his 17th season as a professional, Davids decided to reign himself in just a fraction at the start of his innings. “I’ve been giving myself time to get in and then to play shots. I’ve been waiting until the fifth sometimes up until the eighth over even, to hit boundaries, whereas in the past I’ve been trying to play shots too early.”
He and opening partner Jonathan Vandiar have been sublime in the first few weeks of the tournament. They followed up their partnership of 153 in the first match against the Dolphins with a record first wicket stand of 313 against the Cape Cobras, but they were brought back down to earth last Sunday against the Lions, sharing just 38 runs for the first wicket.
Vandiar is the second highest run-scorer in the tournament with 219 runs. “It’s really tough for the opposition bowlers,” said Davids, “we’re both stroke-makers, and then there’s the left hand/right hand combination which makes it hard because as a bowler you’re constantly having to assess, adjust angles and your alignment ...so the bowlers are constantly under pressure.”
The Titans are well in contention for the Momentum Cup. They’re currently second on the log ahead of this evening’s match against the Knights in Benoni having won two of their opening three games while racking up 992 runs in those three innings.
There’s no single secret to the Titans’ consistency, which this season has seen them collect the T20 crown and finish as runners-up in the four-day competition.
One area Davids mentioned is the talent within the franchise.
“We have great strength in depth and I’ve always believed we’d be challenging for trophies, that’s a key area. Even though we’ve supplied quite a few players to the Proteas, we are constantly bringing more youngsters through.
“We’ve also kept a lot of guys in the system who want to play for the Titans. They could take the easy way out and go to another franchise, but guys are willing to fight for spots even though they know they won’t be playing all the time.”
And then there’s been the impact of coach Mark Boucher, who’s emphasised the intensity with which the team must play. “We are constantly working to be on the button when we play,” said Davids.
“We realise that we have certain standards we must adhere to but we’re also constantly pushing the boundaries, wanting to get better, improving our standards. We want to be the franchise in South African cricket that sets the standard.”
In the Knights, they face the team who won the Sunfoil Series, although as the Dolphins showed on Wednesday night, when they trounced the Central franchise by seven wickets with 22.3 overs to spare, the Knights are struggling without their skipper Theunis de Bruyn and quick bowler Duanne Olivier, who are both on Proteas duty in New Zealand.
With those two out the Knights also lost to the Warriors last Saturday and up against a confident and in-form Titans team, the going will be hard.
“All round they’re a great team, bowlers and batsmen, we’ve seen that this season ... but we will go into that match again focussing on what we need to do, playing according to our standards and seeking to play that perfect game or as close to perfect as possible,” said Davids.