Titans gain bonus-point victory

Cape Town - The Titans continued their Momentum One-Day Cup fightback with a second straight bonus-point victory as they beat the Dolphins by seven wickets in a rain-interrupted game at SuperSport Park.

Chasing a Duckworth-Lewis adjusted target of 172 for victory, Graeme van Buuren’s 84 and Heino Kuhn’s unbeaten 63 saw the Titans canter home in just 27.1 overs, according to the Cricket South Africa website.

That put the defending champions on top of the table on net run-rate, level on points with the Dolphins and the Cape Cobras, although the Western Cape side has a game in hand.

After the Titans had won the toss and stuck the Dolphins in, a roaring start by Vaughn van Jaarsveld and Cameron Delport was swiftly pegged back by Albie Morkel and Marchant de Lange as they picked up the wickets of Delport and Cody Chetty respectively.

But Van Jaarsveld kept the innings ticking and guided the Dolphins to 88 for three before rain stopped play in the 18th over.

The game was reduced to 37 overs per side when it got back underway, putting the onus on the Dolphins to get cracking, but barring a couple of big overs, Van Jaarsveld and Tshepang Dithole struggled to gain momentum.

Henry Davids (3 for 30) then pulled the rug from under the visitors when he had Dithole caught and bowled and Ryan McLaren trapped lbw in the space of four balls, before having Van Jaarsveld caught behind for 66 in his next over.

The Dolphins fell apart thereafter, losing their last four wickets for 30 runs in four overs to be bowled out in just 32.2 overs.

Although they gave themselves a chance by whittling out openers Davids and Mangaliso Mosehle in the first five overs of the chase, Heino Kuhn and Graeme van Buuren made sure of the result - and the bonus point - by adding 137 for the third wicket at almost seven runs per over.

Van Buuren was the chief aggressor, striking four sixes in a 71-ball knock before he fell to Keshav Maharaj with the finishing line in sight.