Subrayen, Muthusamy take 19 Titans wickets, bowl 85% of the Dolphins’ overs.
Telford Vice | Cape Town
SOUTH Africa’s franchise era ended with a bang, not a whimper, when the Dolphins overcame the weather and the Titans to claim the first-class championship at Kingsmead on Monday. The home side, spearheaded by spin, won by an innings and 76 runs before lunch on the fifth day.
The Dolphins are the only team to have reached all three finals in a season in franchise history, but the one-day trophy was shared after the decider against the Titans was washed out and the Lions beat them in the T20 final. This is the only time the Dolphins have won the first-class title — they shared it in 2004/05 and 2005/06. They did so despite bad light and rain limiting the first day’s play to 10 overs and claiming the second day entirely.
Monday’s play, which ended the domestic summer, was the last that will feature the franchises that have existed since 2004/05. From next season top level representative cricket in South Africa will be structured along provincial lines, as it was before the franchises were created.
Opener Sarel Erwee’s 100 and captain Marques Ackerman’s 74, and their stand of 135, anchored the Dolphins’ first innings of 295. The total would have been significantly bigger had the Titans not fought back to take the last seven wickets for 75.
With the pitch slowed by the conditions and showing signs of wear, off-spinner Prenelan Subrayen took the new ball for the Dolphins when the Titans took guard for the first time on Sunday. Subrayen took 6/24 and left-arm spinner Senuran Muthusamy claimed 3/12 as the Titans crashed to 53 all out — a record low for them and for Kingsmead — in 43.3 overs. Dean Elgar’s 16 was their only score in double figures. Elgar faced 65 balls, more than twice as many as eight of his teammates.
The Titans were dismissed before lunch on Sunday and followed on 242 runs behind. This time they applied themselves better, but they were always going to struggle what with Subrayen and Muthusamy tightening the noose in conditions that skewed ever further in favour of spin. The visitors were 92/4 at stumps on Sunday and were dismissed for 166 before lunch inside the first session on Monday. Rivaldo Moonsamy’s 41 was the best effort in an innings that included Yaseen Valli’s 37 and Theunis de Bruyn’s 38. Valli and Moonsamy each faced more than 100 deliveries. Subrayen, who shared the new ball this time, took 4/56 to complete a match haul of 10/80 and establish new personal career-bests for an innings and a match. Muthusamy claimed 6/79 to finish the match with 9/91.
That marked the only time in franchise history that two bowlers took at least nine wickets in the same match. The only Titans wicket in either innings that didn’t fall to Subrayen or Muthusamy was that of Dayyaan Galiem, who was run out without facing a ball in the first innings. Subrayen bowled 60 overs in the match, 22 of them scoreless. Eighteen of Muthusamy’s 42.5 overs were unblemished by runs. Together they sent down 102.5 of the 120.5 overs the Titans faced in the match, or 85%.
First published by Cricbuzz.
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