Proteas star Heinrich Klaasen produced the fireworks with the bat and Dayyaan Galiem was superb with the ball as the Momentum Multiply Titans sealed a thumping 94-run win over Goldrush Boland in their T20 Challenge match at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Wednesday night.
Klaasen blitzed an unbeaten 71 off 32 balls, smoking five fours and five sixes, to help his side to a daunting 169/4 batting first, in a match reduced to 15-overs-a-side after rain delayed the start of the game by 80 minutes.
Galiem then tore the heart out of the Boland top order, picking up three early wickets, on his way to brilliant figures of 3/7 in three overs, which effectively ended the match as a contest as the rest of the Titans bowling department completed the job, with them all out for 75.
The Boland chase got off to a poor start as Galiem struck in the first over, having Pieter Malan (2) caught by Corbin Bosch at mid-on.
In his next over Galiem had Gavin Kaplan (1) caught by Matthew Boast at mid-off, and bowled captain Clyde Fortuin for a second ball duck, as the visitors tumbled to 7/3.
Boast got in on the action at the start of the fourth over, as Michael Copeland (1) got a thick outside edge to a diving Donovan Ferreira at first slip, leaving Boland in dire straits at 8/4.
Opener Grant Roelofsen, 26 off 20 balls (3x4; 1x6) and Keith Dudgeon (4), managed to batten down the hatches for a few overs as they shared in a 29-run fifth wicket stand, which included Roelofsen hitting Tshepo Ndwandwa for a six over deep midwicket and a four past long on in the seventh over.
Andile Phehlukwayo joined the attack in the eighth over and made the breakthrough, having Dudgeon caught by Klaasen at short leg, with the over ending as a maiden wicket, while Corbin Bosch bowled Roelofsen at the start of the ninth as they slipped to 37/6.
The wickets continued to fall as Imaran Manack (2) and Glenton Stuurman (6) were both bowled by Ndwandwa and Phehlukwayo respectively leaving Boland on 53/8.
Aya Gqamane made sure that the visitors wouldn’t go down without a fight as he clubbed 26 off 18 (3x4; 1x6) before he was the last wicket to fall run out in the 14th over.
In the first innings it was Klaasen’s ferocious half century, backed up by cameos from Rivaldo Moonsamy, 38 off 21 (4x4; 2x6), Donovan Ferreira, 23no off 13 (4x4), and Sibonelo Makhanya, 20 off 11 (2x4; 1x6) that got the Titans to a big total.
Boland had won the toss and chose to bowl, with them managing an early breakthrough as Dudgeon had Lhuan-dre Pretorius (3) trapped LBW in the second over with the score 10/1.
Moonsamy then took centre stage as he battered Dudgeon for two sixes, one over deep square leg and the other over the bowler’s head, as 16 came off the fourth over, followed by three fours in a row off Manack’s fifth with another 16 added to take them to 51/1.
Ferisco Adams was introduced in the final over of the powerplay and immediately made his mark by bowling Moonsamy and caught Keegan Petersen (8) off his own bowling to reduce them to 52/3 after six overs.
In the eighth over Boland suffered a massive blow as Adams went off injured, which removed their strike bowler for the rest of the match.
Makhanya was looking in the mood, as he crunched Gqamane for a six and four, but then hit Manack straight to Kaplan at deep backward square leg to leave the Titans in a spot of bother on 77/4 after nine overs.
But the final five overs of the innings were complete carnage as they went for 81-runs, as Klaasen and Ferreira got stuck in, including Klaasen launching two sixes and two fours in Gqamane’s 13th over that went for 25 runs.
MOMENTUM MULTIPLY TITANS: Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Rivaldo Moonsamy, Keegan Petersen (capt), Heinrich Klaasen, Donovan Ferreira, Sibonelo Makhanya, Dayyaan Galiem, Andile Phehlukwayo, Corbin Bosch, Roelof van der Merwe, Tsepo Ndwandwa
GOLDRUSH BOLAND: Grant Roelofsen, Pieter Malan, Clyde Fortuin (c) (wk), Gavin Kaplan, Michael Copland, Ferisco Adams, Keith Dudgeon, Glenton Stuurman, Imraan Manack, Aya Gqamane, Siya Mahima