Pretoria - The Dolphins’ young bowling attack continued to plough its way through the Sunfoil Series’ finest batting line-ups with the Titans being the latest side to find itself on the receiving end.
Daryn Dupavillon, Matthew Pillans and Keshav Maharaj had already dominated batsmen from the Knights and Cobras, and on Thursday they grabbed three wickets apiece to bowl the Titans out for 267 at SuperSport Park.
Openers Divan van Wyk and Imraan Khan then made sure that the Dolphins stamped their mark on the opening day by coasting to 51 without loss in just nine overs.
Khan was particularly positive, scoring 32 not out at a run a ball, while Van Wyk went to stumps on 17.
Although the Titans had half-centuries from Theunis de Bruyn and Henry Davids, their biggest problem was losing wickets in clusters.
De Bruyn’s 52 allowed them to recover from the early loss of Dean Elgar, who was bowled by Pillans’ second ball, but the right-hander’s departure saw them fall from 137 for one to 141 for four in the space of just nine balls.
Pillans made the initial breakthrough by having De Bruyn caught behind, and in the next over Dupavillon nipped out Davids for 79 and then trapped Roelof van der Merwe lbw two balls later.
The next collapse was even more severe, with four wickets lost for the addition of just 12 runs as Maharaj picked up three wickets in three overs.
At 221 for eight, Mangaliso Mosehle launched a counter-attack but only made it to 41 before Pillans ended the fightback and the innings.
The 23-year-old Pillans thus finished with figures of 3 for 80, while 20-year-old Dupavillon had 3 for 67 and 25-year-old Maharaj had 3 for 51.
Coach Lance Klusener had suggested before the game that Robbie Frylinck and Craig Alexander could return to the side after recovering from injury, but on this evidence the old hands are struggling to get back in.