JOHANNESBURG – This was an uncharacteristically sloppy display from the defending champions as they suffered their first loss in this season’s Momentum One-Day Cup.
The Titans lacked their usual discipline in the field and with the ball, while with the bat, no one bar Farhaan Behardien, showed much application.
The Cobras certainly deserved their success, they bowled some good lines, while Dane Paterson had good command of length as well, and got the ball moving nicely off the surface.
The Cobras had chosen to bowl but had to wait until the 10th over for some success, when Paterson bowled Andrea Agathangelou for 20. But that stage the Titans had also seen Heino Kuhn have to abandon his innings following a spasm in his lower back. He did return to crease at the fall of the fifth wicket but didn’t last long before he was bowled by a beautiful delivery from Paterson that hit the top of off stump.
Wickets fell at regular intervals for the Titans, and their innings lacked any sort of rhythm.
Their top four batsmen all got starts - scoring between 20 and 32 - but none went on to score anything of substance. Behardien was the only player who managed to stave off the Cobras, with a gutsy 59 (75b, 4x4) but he ran out of partners. Were it not for an unbeaten 27-run partnership for the 10th wicket between Tabraiz Shamsi and Lungi Ngidi, the home team would not have gotten over 200.
Paterson was excellent for the Cobras finishing with 3/38 in 10 overs, Wayne Parnell picked up 2/38, while there were two wickets apiece for Mthiwekhaya Nabe and left-arm spinner George Linde.
Cobras openers Richard Levi and Pieter Malan were both dismissed inside the first 10 overs, but so poor were the Titans in the field - there were numerous miss-fields - and with the ball, that the visitors had started quickly.
By the 15th over their total was 94/2 and they were comfortably ahead of the required run rate thanks to a lively half century from Aviwa Mgijima who scored 54 off 58 balls with eight fours.
JP Duminy added 41 (53b, 2x4) as the Cobras cruised to victory with 70 balls to spare.
Shamsi picked up 3/55, but for the rest of the Titans it was an evening they’d much rather forget.
The Titans will be in Benoni on Sunday to face the Warriors, while Cobras will head south down the M1 to face the Highveld Lions at the Wanderers.
INNINGS | GEORGE LINDE! Remember the name!
The all-rounder smashes a FOUR and a SIX to finish off the game to take the @WorldSportsBet Cape Cobras to a convincing 4-wicket victory against @Titans_Cricket at SuperSport Park.
A great start to 2018! #MODC #TTNvCOB pic.twitter.com/8R4VUcEuFb
— COBRAS CRICKET (@CobrasCricket) January 5, 2018
@shockerhess
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