The Knights brought the Titans’ momentum to a resounding halt with a 22-run victory at Willowmoore Park in Benoni on Friday night.
The win came off the back of a superb 132-run fourth-wicket stand between Rudi Second, who top-scored with 75, and young Leus du Plooy, who made 72.
Then Shadley van Schalkwyk (3/52) destroyed the Titans’ in-form top-order and Mbulelo Budaza, with 4/43, ripped out the lower-order as the Knights put their Momentum One-Day Cup campaign back on track after back-to-back home defeats.
The start of the match had been delayed by light rain shortly after the toss, which Albie Morkel won. He asked the visitors to bat, with both innings reduced to 48 overs per side.
The Titans had brought Lungi Ngidi back for his first start since the young quick had injured his side playing for South Africa in the second T20 International against Sri Lanka in January.
The first wicket went to the other man making a returning to the starting team, David Wiese, who had Diego Rosier adjudged lbw for just two.
Ngidi and Junior Dala picked up the next two Knights wickets, reducing them to 47/3 in the 10th over.
However, Second and Du Plooy ensured that any jitters there may have been in the Knights dressing-room – following two below-par displays with the bat in their last two matches – were calmed with an attacking partnership in which runs were scored at more than five an over.
Mbulelo Budaza grabbed four wickets to ensure victory for the Knights. Photo: Frikkie Kapp, BackpagePix
The experienced Second was happy to rotate the strike, allowing Du Plooy to seek out the boundaries. The latter hit three fours and a couple of sixes in his innings, in which he faced 84 balls.
Second took 101 deliveries for his 75, and when he and Du Plooy were dismissed within seven balls of each other, the Titans would have felt they had control of the match. But Patrick Botha smashed 33 off 23 balls as the Knights set the hosts 250 to win.
The Titans have had some excellent starts thus far in the competition thanks to openers Jonathan Vandiar and Henry Davids, the top two leading run-scorers after the first few weeks of the tournament.
But Van Schalkwyk knocked both out inside the first 10 overs, and added Aiden Markram’s wicket for good measure to reduce the Titans to 46/3.
A 50-run stand followed between Heino Kuhn and the flamboyant young stroke-maker Rivaldo Moonsamy, but they too were dismissed in relatively quick succession, leaving the Titans on 118/5.
As a result, the big-hitting duo of Morkel and Wiese had to rein themselves in somewhat, and while their partnership of 67 came at a run-a-ball, that still kept the Knights in it, with the visitors knowing a wicket would put them on top.
And that’s exactly what happened when Morkel was run out following some sharp work from Pite van Biljon for 42.
The Titans’ tail could offer Wiese no support, and when he was caught behind by Second off Budaza for 46, the game was essentially over.
The Titans were eventually dismissed for 227 in the 45th over.
The Knights will face the Lions at the Wanderers on Sunday, while the Titans travel to Port Elizabeth to play the Warriors.