Multiply Titans 148/6 (Makhanya 47. Linde 2/23)
Six Gun Grill Cape Cobras 132 ( Linde 37. Ngidi 3/18)
Titans won by 16 runs
JOHANNESBURG - The Cape Cobras did not so much engage in a run chase as a run retreat, as they suffered yet another defeat in what has become a calamitous season.
The Western Cape franchise are now firmly on the backfoot in this brief Betway T20 Challenge, being held in a bio bubble in Durban. They improved with the ball on Sunday, against a power packed Titans outfit, but their batting - aside from George Linde - was woeful.
Batting was a difficult exercise on a very slow pitch, making shotmaking difficult. Linde was the exception in that he was able to smash the ball over the boundary - all of his four sixes coming against the no.2 ranked T20 bowler in the world, Tabraiz Shamsi.
The most successful batsmen were those able to punch the ball into gaps like Dean Elgar who made 31 for the Titans, and his teammate, Sibonelo Makhanya, who top scored in the match with 47.
Makhanya stood apart from the other batsmen in that he found the right balance between nudging the ball around, and seeking out the boundary when required. He hit three fours and three sixes off 33 balls, and held the Titans innings together against a much more disciplined Cobras attack.
Corbin Bosch started and finished well, pickin up 1/24, but Linde was the star again, taking the crucial wickets of Elgar and Heinrich Klaasen, while conceding 23 runs.
Having kept the Titans to less than 150, the Cobras would have fancied their chances of victory. However they managed that pursuit poorly, against an admittedly strong bowling unit, showing no intensity early and scoring only 24 runs in the powerplay.
It left the middle and lower order an enormous task, one that despite Linde smashing Shamsi for three consecutive sixes in the 17th over they were unable to achieve.
The Cobras now have very little wiggle-room and Monday morning’s match against the Knights falls into the ‘must win’ category for them.