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Cape Town - Farhaan Behardien's brisk half-century guided The Titans out of a sticky situation and took them to a 26-run victory over the Cape Cobras in Sunday’s RAM SLAM T20 clash at SuperSport Park.
Behardien smashed an unbeaten 61 from just 31 balls in an innings that stood head and shoulders above any other on the surface, allowing the Titans to post 173 for five.
Its quality became increasingly apparent as the Cobras failed to generate any momentum in their reply, which ultimately finished on 147 for six.
The victory left the Titans second on the table with eight points from three games, but it didn’t always look as though it would come as easily as the final margin suggested.
High on confidence after his heroics at the death against the Warriors in Paarl on Friday, Dane Paterson (3 for 31) grabbed the early wickets of Henry Davids and Grant Mokoena to leave the Titans 22 for two.
Behardien then saw the Titans slip to 74 for four just moments after he came to the crease, with Justin Ontong snuffing out a promising stand between Quinton de Kock (34) and Graeme van Buuren (27) when he removed both batsmen in the space of four deliveries.
Behardien put the innings back on track in a 52-run stand with Qaasim Adams (27 off 19 balls) and then made sure that it finished with a bang by taking 26 from the last two overs along with Albie Morkel.
The Titans opened the bowling with Graeme van Buuren in a move that paid off - the spinner allowed just two runs in his opening over and finished with none for 15 in four overs - but a key moment came when Chris Morris won his tussle with Richard Levi.
After being hit for four and then six by Levi, Morris had the last laugh when he ended the second over by having him caught.
Although Andrew Puttick (27) and Keegan Petersen (27) kept the innings ticking over, they weren’t able to inject the level of urgency required before Puttick was trapped lbw by Ruben Claassen.
Fresh from his exploits with TUKS in the Red Bull Campus Cricket World Finals, the 22-year-old off-spinner went on to grab the wicket of top-scorer Omphile Ramela (38) and finish with figures of 2 for 34 on his franchise debut.
With Albie Morkel and Morris also finishing with two wickets apiece and Van Buuren restricting the Cobras, the visitors’ chase petered out to leave them with just one win from their three matches to date.
