Report

Morkel saves Titans' blushes

A summary of the latest action from the Standard Bank Pro20 Series

Keith Lane
22-Jan-2006
At Willowmoore Park in Benoni, the Titans were stretched to the last three balls by the Warriors in their effort to pass a small target of 113 to win by four wickets. Having been asked to bat first on a two-paced pitch the Warriors collapsed to 112, with Justin Kreusch scoring 73. The next highest was 16 from Robin Peterson as first Brendon Reddy picked up 3 for 31 and then Pierre de Bruyn mixed it up to take 4 for 11. Some poor batting from the Titans top order saw them collapse to 39 for 5 after 10 overs. It was left to Goolam Bodi and Albie Morkel to sensibly bat the Titans back into a winning position. Their 73-run partnership was ended with the scores level and Bodi failing to clear mid-off for 43. It was, however, the 46 off 30 balls from Morkel that saved the Titans some embarrassment.
Rain in Bloemfontein saw the Lions beat the Eagles by 28 runs according to the Duckworth-Lewis method when rain ended all chances of play after the Eagles had faced 7.4 overs. The Lions had earlier totalled 174 in their 20 overs with Neil McKenzie striking a brilliant 85 off 49 balls. Andy Blignaut, making his debut for the Lions, waded in with 32 off 16 as the Lions set a reasonable target. Rain however spoilt any chance of excitement with the Eagles scoring 40 for 4 as they tried to reach the adjusted target. With the rain increasing the umpires had no alternative but to leave the field of play after only 7.4 overs.

Keith Lane works for Cricinfo in South Africa