Moonsamy and Galiem shine as Titans thump Warriors in Gqeberha

Rivaldo Moonsamy and Dayyan Galiem’s half centuries ensured that the Momentum Multiply Titans walked away with a comfortable six wicket victory in their CSA T20 Challenge match against the Dafabet Warriors at Dafabet St George's Park Cricket Stadium in Gqeberha on Saturday.

Moonsamy scored a quick fire 73 off 39 balls while Galiem notched 55 runs off 34 deliveries to help the Titans finish with 174-4 and reach their revised target of 174 with two overs to spare.

The win means the Titans finished second on the log with 21 points and proceed to the playoffs.

Earlier, on Warriors opener Jordan Hermann scored a brilliant century and helped his side register a decent first innings total of 179-5.

In reply, Titans got off to a flying start with Moonsamy and Lhuan-dre Pretorius going at a run rate of 13.50. The pair reached 48 runs in four overs before the loss of Pretorious(23) who was run out by Jean du Plessis.

Neil Brand was caught at square leg by Patrick Kruger for a two ball duck off Alfred Mathoa’s bowling.

With the Titans 50-2 after five overs, Moonsamy and Galiem stepped up and added 99 runs to the Titans score before Moonsamy mistimed his slog sweep in 13th over and was caught at deep mid wicket by Sinethemba Qeshile of JP King’s bowling.

Anrich Nortje clean bowled Galiem in the 14th over but the damage had been done by the men from the nations capital.

Donovan Ferreira with an unbeaten 18 score ensured the Titans cross the line comfortably at the end.

Warriors got off a bad start in their innings after Titans won the toss and elected to bowl first

They lost opener Jiveshan Pillay(3) in the second over to Junior Dala after he flicked his shot straight to Galiem who was standing at backward square leg.

Hermann and JP King ensured there were no quick tumble of wickets for Warriors and helped them finish the first power play 41/1 at a run rate of 7.00 and looked set for a 140 target.

Brand introduced the spin of Tabraiz Shamsi in the sixth over to pick up more wickets. The trick immediately worked as Shamsi bowled JP King for 17 runs leaving the Warriors 45-2.

Titans continued to bowl with discipline and made it hard for King and Hermann to get any easy boundaries. Warriors only managed to get two boundaries from the 8th over till 12th.

Though King and Hermann were cramped for boundaries, their strike rotation was sublime, and helped the Warriors pass the 100 mark in the 14th over.

Hermann accelerated the Warriors score and hit Dala for 24 runs in the 15th over which the fast bowler conceded an expensive 25 runs.

Brand turned to Shamsi to calm Warriors free flow of runs again. The change of pace immediately worked in the 16th over as he had Du Plessis(27) caught by Corbin Bosch at cover after skying his slog sweep.

The 22-year old Hermann reached his second career T20 hundred in the 17th over in style with a four,coming off 58 balls.

In the next over Galiem removed the dangerous Hermann after he mistimed his shot to Lhuan-dre Pretorius who was at cover.

Sinethemba Qeshile had a short stay in the crease for his nine runs after hitting wickets off the bowling off Bosch.

Andile Makgakane(4) was runout by Bosch in the last ball of the innings.

Shamsi was the standout bowler for the Titans with figures of 2-23 at an economy rate of 5.75.

DAFABET WARRIORS: Jordan Hermann, Jiveshan Pillay, JP King, Jean du Plessis (wk), Sinethemba Qeshile, Andile Mokgakane, Patrick Kruger, Christopher King, Anrich Nortje, Siya Simetu (capt), Shimane Mothoa

MOMENTUM MULTIPLY TITANS: Rivaldo Moonsamy(wk), Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Neil Brand (capt), Bongumusa Makhanya, Donovan Ferreira, Abdu Galiem, Andile Phehlukwayo, Corbin Bosch, Roelof van der Merwe, Junior Dala, Tabraiz Shamsi