Magical Tabraiz Shamsi leads Titans to Ram Slam final

The Titans emphatically reached a third consecutive domestic T20 final on Wednesday night by embracing the value of Tabraiz Shamsi.

South African cricket in general is still far too conservative when it comes to inconsistent match-winners like the left-arm wrist spinner but it worked a treat for the wise Albie Morkel.

Shamsi rewarded his captain with a superb spell of 4/32 as the Titans beat the Warriors by eight wickets in Centurion.

Morkel’s faith in his mercurial tweaker was even more pleasing to see given that he could’ve easily been conservative.

This was, after all, a semifinal and Shamsi did leak runs.

Colin Ackerman, who mixed some raw power with typical finesse in a 31-ball 48, took a liking to him.

He swept him for two fours and smacked a six over long-off.

That’s when local captains tend to get twitchy.

Not Morkel.

After going for 15 runs in his first two overs, Shamsi switched ends and was rather lucky when Chris Jonker played a wild, poor slog to be caught at short fine leg.

But then came the magic.

Shamsi was swept for four, bowled a wide and then delivered a beauty – a fuller ball that pitched on off-stump and straightened.

The previously rampant Ackerman suddenly looked hopeless and was trapped LBW.

That was the over – the 14th – that changed the game.

Shamsi bamboozled the rest of the batting order as the Warriors collapsed from 114/3 to 143 all out.

The runs conceded didn’t matter because the wickets plugged it.

It was all very hard on Ackerman and Colin Ingram (41 off 28), who laid the groundwork.

That said, Ingram was kicking himself when he tamely cut Aiden Markram (1/30) to point.

The Titans’ reply didn’t start all that well.

They had already suffered a major disruption a mere four minutes before the toss when veteran opener Henry Davids injured his knee in the warm-up.

As a result, chief executive Jacques Faul immediately called Cricket South Africa to inform them that they wouldn’t be able to fulfill the governing body’s quota requirement of six non-white players because their only two reserves in the match squad of 13 were white.

Common sense prevailed and Heinrich Klaasen was allowed to play.

CSA did confirm though that the Titans will need to submit a medical certificate and short report on the incident to it’s transformation manager, Max Jordaan.

Incidentally, Klaasen made a sprightly 24 after Quinton de Kock’s wretched run of form continued.

But it was the dynamic duo of Markam and AB de Villiers that

eased the hosts to Saturday’s climax.

Markram scratched around badly before making a complete U-turn in making an unbeaten 56 off 38.

De Villiers was simply himself in finishing with 54 off 36.

A highlight of that knock was the Proteas talisman cutting Sisanda Magala for two sixes when he had just come to the crease.

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