Titans cement semi-final place in T20 Challenge

The Titans have cemented their place in the semi-final of Cricket South Africa’s T20 Challenge in Gqeberha. The Pretoria outfit defeated the North West Dragons by 33 runs – effectively ending the Dragons’ chances of qualifying for the play-offs.
The Titans got their innings off to a flying start after being put in to bat thanks to Proteas left-hander Quinton de Kock. De Kock smashed 34 runs from just 17 deliveries and along with captain Theunis de Bruyn looked to take on the bowling before a spectacular catch from Heino Kuhn had De Kock on his way.
The Dragons consolidated with Dwaine Pretorious and Senuran Muthusamy taking three wickets between them to help reduce their opponents to 78 for four. Heinrich Klaasen and Donavon Ferreira absorbed the pressure after that, setting it up for a flourish towards the end of the innings. They shared in an 89 run partnership with Klaasen clubbing a half-century from just 39 deliveries.
Ferreria finished unbeaten on 35 and Klaasen on 54 as they scored a challenging 167 for four in their 20 overs. The Dragons made a dismal start to their chase with opener Wesley Marshall just a little too casual taking a second run. He was unceremoniously run-out by De Kock for five and that seemed to set the tone for their innings as they never really got any momentum going and losing wickets at regular intervals.
Spinners Aaron Phangiso and Dewald Brevis accompanied by seamer Aya Gqamane took two wickets each to help restrict the Dragons to 134 for seven – handing the Titans a confidence-boosting 33 run victory. This is their sixth win on the trot following their lone defeat to the Warriors in their opening match of the tournament.
“That was a knock on the nose we didn’t enjoy that loss, especially the way we did it we panicked with the bat and it hurt so it was good for the team space to have that hard chat early on in the competition we know why we came here now we just another step closer and like everyone is saying sit off tomorrow and then back to the drawing board and a good performance on Friday,” says Theunis De Bruyn, Titans captain.
With the North West an unlikely candidate, the last spot in the semis is now probably a two-horse race between the Dolphins and the Warriors.