Sparkling fifties from man-of-the-match Boeta Dippenaar, Ryan Bailey and Morne van Wyk helped the Eagles to an exciting seven-wicket victory over the Titans in their Supersport Series match at Supersport Park on Sunday.
Set the task of scoring 248 off 53 overs to win, after a brave declaration by Titans skipper Daryll Cullinan, the Eagles went for it from the start. Gerhardus Liebenberg set about the Titans’ bowling with a will, in contrast to his slow start in the first innings.
Davey Jacobs, who made 149 in the first innings, could not repeat his heroics, but after he went out for 11 — caught by Zander de Bruyn off Alfonso Thomas — fellow centurion Boeta Dippenaar made his 24th half-century to set the Eagles well on the way.
Liebenberg was bowled by Rudolph for 31 two balls after tea, and Dippenaar was next to go. Going up the wicket to Rudolph, he tried to withdraw from a shot, but instead spooned it into the safe hands of Geoffrey Toyana at mid-on.
With Liebenberg and Dippenaar gone, it was up to Ryan Bailey and Morne van Wyk to see the Eagles home. They did so very competently, never allowing the required run rate to get out of hand, and Bailey hit the winning runs with three balls remaining. Bailey ended not out on 76 and Van Wyk on 74.
Earlier, the Titans, who resumed on their overnight score of 69 for one, with an overall lead of 100 runs, declared 11 overs after lunch, with the score on 216 for seven.
That the declaration was imminent became evident when Albie Morkel, apparently in response to a message from the dressing-room, climbed into Nicky Boje and hit him for three sixes in one over. Not surprisingly, Boje took himself out of the attack, and the Titans declared two overs later.
Titans coach Dave Nosworthy was philosophical after the match.
”You’ve got to risk losing to win,” he said. ”We decided overnight that we wanted to go for a win, and we wanted to play positive cricket.”
”All credit to the Eagles, though,” he added. ”We set them a reasonable target and they went for it. But it’s early days — no panic stations yet.” — Sapa