JOHANNESBURG - The Titans will find out on Friday night just what - if any - lingering effects there are following their late meltdown in the face of the volcanic eruption from Rob Frylinck a week ago.
It’s in the nature of modern sports teams to move onto the next assignment, take the good from what happened previously in a loss, and hope the confidence isn’t too badly damaged.
The Titans have enough veteran know-how in their squad to probably just “move on” but at the back of their minds must be what happened in the last five overs last week. Conceding 66 runs off the last 32 balls to lose a match against the Dolphins in which they were cruising will create some doubts ahead of their match against the Cape Cobras at Newlands on Friday night.
To erase those doubts the Titans will want to produce a more efficient display with the ball and they have reinforced their attack adding young Lungi Ngidi to the squad.
While Ngidi has yet to prove his prowess as a “death” bowler in what has admittedly been a short career but if the side-injury he picked up playing for South Africa in the T20 series against Sri Lanka is no longer an issue, he does add menace with the ball.
He has played just six senior 50-over games, the last of those coming in the 2015/16 season, but as he’s shown for the Titans in the other two formats this season and against Sri Lanka, form and confidence are elements he has in abundance.
Is it enough to cure all the Titans ills? Unlikely, for they will need their established stars Albie Morkel, David Wiese and Morné Morkel to play significantly better than was the case against the Dolphins. The same goes for Malusi Siboto, who’s blown hot and cold all season, and needs to be a steadier influence.
On the flip side, the batting does look very strong. Jonathan Vandiar, Henry Davids and young Rivaldo Moonsamy all scored half-centuries a week ago and in Heino Kuhn they have an experienced old hand who knows how to navigate his way through a season.
The Cobras quickly
regained some momentum
after taking a thumping in their opening game and
restored some order with a comfortable midweek win against the Warriors.
Opener Richard Levi seems to be in good early form, blasting a 55-ball 73 in East London on Wednesday night, while young all-rounder Jason Smith continues to make impressive strides backing up a lively
innings of 29 with a return of 4/38 from seven overs.
It does make for an intriguing match-up between two sides who seem to have their bases covered with both bat and ball. Most importantly for the Cobras is to continue
implementing that which worked well in midweek while for the Titans, tonight’s match provides a test of their mental strength.
Fixtures
Friday:
(start 2pm) - BuildNat Cape Cobras v Multiply Titans, Newlands; HollywoodBets Dolphins v Bizhub Highveld Lions, Kingsmead.
Saturday:
(start 2pm) - VB Knights v Warriors, Kimberley
Sunday:
(start 10am) - HollywoodBets Dolphins v BuildNat Cape Cobras, Pietermaritzburg; Multiply Titans v Bizhub Highveld Lions, Centurion.