Dolphins start MODC title defence with win over Titans
The Hollywoodbets Dolphins got the defence of their Momentum One Day Cup title off to the perfect start with a systematic demolition of the Momentum Multiply Titans at Senwes Park in Potchefstroom on Saturday.
In the opening match of a mini triangular series in a bio-bubble in Potchefstroom, the Dolphins posted an imposing 272/7 and then ran through the Titans line-up to leave them 196/8 after 50 overs, handing the defending champions victory by 76 runs.
Openers Marques Ackerman and Grant Roelofsen got the Dolphins innings off to a brisk start, putting together 38 runs quickly before Ackerman was caught by Junior Dala off the bowling of Abdu Galiem for 19. The Titans may have felt they were taking control of the match after getting the scalps of Ruan de Swart, Dave Miller and Khaya Zondo cheaply, but then Andile Phehlekwayo joined Roelofsen at the crease.
Their fifth wicket partnership took the Dolphins to 133 before Roelofsen fell for a classy 65 off 69 deliveries, caught off the bowling of spinner Tabraiz Shamzi. The Dolphins kept the inertia going as Senuran Muthusamy set about the Titans bowling, in an aggressive fifty run partnership for the sixth wicket with Phehlukwayo, as both men went on the record half centuries.
When Phehlukwayo fell for 51, Robbie Frylinck flayed the Titans bowlers to all corners of the Potchefstroom ground in an eighty run seventh wicket stand with Muthusamy, before Frylinck fell with just three balls remaining in the innings. Muthusamy was unbeaten on 70 off 67 deliveries, including five fours and two sixes, when the innings closed at 272/7.
In their reply the Pretoria outfit lost wickets at regular intervals. Frylinck had Diego Rosier caught behind and Kerwin Mungroo accounting for Neil Brand, leaving the Titans at 30/2 in the ninth over. Titans stalwart Theunis de Bruin steadied the listing ship until Ruaan De Swart accounted for the dangerman, caught by Dave Miller, and when Grant Thomson became Kerwin Mungroo second victim the Dolphins were back in charge of the match, the Titans stuttering at 114/5 after 30 overs.
De Swart then rattled through the Titans middle order, removing Abdu Galiem and Junior Dala, while Senuran Muthusamy took the wickets of Rubin Hermann and Bongumusa Makhanya with his wily spinners. Former Dolphin Kyle Abbott and Masimphuthando Ntini held the Titans tail together, but by stage the result was a foregone conclusion.