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Port Elizabeth - Tabraiz Shamsi nabbed seven wickets as the Titans bowled the Warriors out for 282 before reaching 78/3 in their reply at stumps on the first day of their Sunfoil Series match at St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth on Friday.
Left-arm wrist spinner Shamsi ended with the wonderful figures of 7/93 off 19.4 overs and he was at the heart of a Warriors’ collapse that saw the hosts lose their last six wickets for the addition of just 47 runs.
The Warriors’ plight would have been a lot worse if it had not been for the efforts of Somila Seyibokwe, who equalled his best first-class score of 101 (157 balls, 13 fours, 1 six).
Dean Elgar (34 not out) and Heino Kuhn (23), the leading run-scorer in the Sunfoil Series this season, then gave the Titans’ innings a solid start with an opening stand of 49.
But fast bowler Sisanda Magala struck twice to remove Kuhn and Grant Mokoena (4) before paceman Anrich Nortje nipped out Henry Davids (4) shortly before the close of play as the Titans ended the day trailing the hosts by 204 runs on the first innings.
Magala finished with figures of 2/13 off five overs.
The Warriors had won the toss and elected to bat but they found themselves in early trouble as they slipped to 78/4.
But Seyibokwe and Kelly Smuts added some respectability to the score with a counter-attacking fifth-wicket stand of 157 off just 35.3 overs.
Smuts weighed in with 67 (105 balls, 5 fours) before he was trapped leg-before by Shamsi to herald the start of the Warriors’ collapse.
Seyibokwe was the eighth wicket to fall as Shamsi captured the last three wickets of the innings in the space of five balls.
The Titans began this week’s round of match holding a slender seven-point lead over the second-placed Highveld Lions.
