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Cape Town - A blistering opening stand between Quinton de Kock and Henry Davids led The Titans to another impressive win over a close rival as they beat the Cape Cobras by nine runs in Friday’s Ram Slam T20 encounter at PPC Newlands.
De Kock and Davids put on 127 for the first wicket from just 81 balls, setting the Titans up for a total of 177 for three after they had lost the toss and been asked to bat on a chilly and occasionally drizzly evening.
The Cobras made a decent start to their reply with Richard Levi and Andrew Puttick putting on an opening partnership of 65, but could not keep pace with the asking rate through the middle stage of their innings and eventually finished on 168 for six.
Having disposed of the second-placed Dolphins and the third-placed Cobras in the space of three days, the Titans are now well on track for a home final.
This victory took their points tally to 25 from seven games - seven points more than the Dolphins and 13 ahead of the Cobras, who have a game in hand.
The tone for this game was set by De Kock, who allowed himself a maiden over from Dane Paterson to get a feel for the pace of the pitch, but climbed into the fast bowler’s next over as he took 15 runs from it.
Even a strong Cobras pace attack was unable to rein him in thereafter, as he hit two sixes and 11 fours on his way to 85 from 51 balls.
It took a cleverly disguised slower ball from Kieron Pollard to end De Kock’s innings and break the stand, as he holed out to long-off.
Davids had started quietly but built his strike rate up as the innings progressed, and went on to score 51 from 41 balls before he was well caught by Pollard running around the long-off boundary.
Rain forced a short delay soon after, which suited the Cobras to a degree as the Titans struggled to regain momentum in the closing overs.
Nevertheless a target of 178 looked above par, and even after Levi’s 22-ball 32, the Cobras faced a tough chase.
Puttick (39) and Omphile Ramela found themselves squeezed in the middle of the innings, leaving plenty for the likes of Kieron Pollard and Justin Ontong to do in the final five overs.
Pollard did threaten to pull off a heist when he hit three consecutive sixes off Junior Dala on his way to 44 from 23 balls, but Chris Morris turned the game back in the Titans’ favour when he got one to tail into the right-hander and trap him lbw.
David Wiese was left with 19 to defend in the final over, which he did comfortably - in spite of a couple of wides - just moments before the rain returned.
