Brilliant attacking batsmanship by the Titans brought them a superb six-wicket victory over the Warriors in their Standard Bank Cup limited-overs cricket match at St George’s Park on Friday.
Faced with the challenging total of 247 to win after the Warriors made 246 for three in 45 overs, the Titans eased to victory with one over remaining, comfortably handling anything the home attack could throw at them.
It was the highest successful run-chase at St George’s in a 45-over game, beating the previous best of 231, and was set up by an excellent opening stand of 104 in 18 overs between Gulam Bodi (51 off 63 balls) and Alviro Petersen (51 off 57 balls).
They signalled their intentions early on by taking 22 off an over off Justin Kreusch and although they were dismissed in the space of 16 runs, Martin van Jaarsveld (62) and Johan Myburgh (56 not out) easily kept up with the required run tempo of 5,5 an over.
They added 102 in 17 overs and, despite the Warriors picking up two late wickets, the end result was never really in doubt.
The Warriors’ innings centred on a magnificent innings of 90 by skipper Robin Peterson, who blasted his runs off just 82 balls.
Taking full advantage of a life when Faf du Plessis dropped him on the midwicket boundary on 46, Peterson smashed nine fours and two sixes in a sparkling innings.
He hit Morne Morkel out of the attack and scored freely all around the wicket. After a solid opening stand of 57 in 14 overs by Justin Kreusch (46) and Carl Bradfield (23), Peterson and Kreusch launched the innings with a partnership of 50 in seven overs, and then the captain and Arno Jacobs (54 not out off 68 deliveries) added 97 in 20 overs.
Peterson was the only Warriors batsman to lose his wicket to a bowler and Tyron Henderson joined Jacobs to add 42 off the last five overs.
Titans skipper Martin van Jaarsveld used eight bowlers to stem the flow of runs, but none of them did anything special except for paceman Dale Steyn, who bowled with pace and accuracy to concede only 38 runs in nine overs. — Sapa