Obakeng Meletse
WESTERN Province misses out on victory as they leave it too late to chase down a below par 147 made by the Multiply Titans.
Province won the toss and chose to field first. Without a win from their last two encounters, Province would have been happy with a target of 148 runs to win following a collapse by the Titans after they were 50-0 after six overs.
Province would have been doubting their decision to bowl first as Titans negotiated to 50-0 in the first six overs. They took control of the match when they got the wicket of young Lhuan-dre Pretorius three balls later.
The opening pair of Pretorius and Joshua Van Heerden (17) negotiated the first powerplay well before Kyle Simmons and Kyle Verreynne combined well to get rid of the youngster who was unlucky to get an inside edge off his pad and caught by Verreynne for and entertaining 38 (5x4) (1x6).
The Titans were guilty of losing wickets at regular intervals and couldn’t build up any momentum in their innings as Province worked well as a unit and bowled well in partnerships and never really let the pressure go as they continued to pick up wickets and slowed down the scoring.
The Titans struggled to accelerate their innings Rivaldo Moonsamy (20) and Neil Brand (39) did well to see their side to a defendable total in an innings that lacked any Momentum from the Multiply Titans.
David Bedingham (50) and Edward Moore (55) safely negotiated the chase with a good opening stand of 92 and put Province on pole position to break their losing streak. Bedingham in good form needed just 31 balls to score his half century helping himself to (4x4 and 3x6) before falling to the bowling of David Wiese.
Kyle Verreynne (6) and Tony de Zorzi (2) fell in quick succession to give the Titans some hope of making a late comeback.
Tabraiz Shamsi had his shout for Leg Before Wicket turned down by the umpire when it seemed straight as an arrow and had to pull himself up from that disappointment to get the wicket of top scorer Moore turning the match on its head after it seemed Province had run away with it.
George Linde hit Lizaad Williams down the ground for a massive six towards mid-on to see his side to within 20 runs of their target with 18 balls remaining.
Looking to get the game done, Linde hit David Wiese for four but the lanky Namibian International had the last laugh as he got Linde out caught for 17 for his third wicket of the match. Wiese picked up the wicket of Onke Nyaku to set up a grand finale of 10 off six balls.
It wasn’t to be as the heavens opened and players walked off with only one over to go and never returned with persistent rain leaving the spoils to be shared.