Intensity the priority for champion Titans

Intensity has been the priority for the Titans in their RamSlam T20 Challenge campaign this season and the defending champions took that to new levels at the weekend as they overwhelmed the Dolphins at Centurion to win the final by seven wickets with 53 balls to spare.

The Dolphins, sent in to bat, were strangled as inexorably as a python dispatching a rodent, slumping to 100 all out, the lowest ever total in a franchise T20 final, with the Titans batsmen then rushing them to victory in the 12^th over.

“I’m very proud of the guys, I asked them to raise the bar, I knew we had another gear and we played some fantastic cricket. We were brilliant in the field and our intensity was just too much for the Dolphins. They came out super-aggressive, but we were able to counter that with some very skilful bowling,” Titans captain Albie Morkel said after his team became the first to win a hat-trick of T20 titles.

“I think that was our best performance of the season in the field. There were a couple of tough chances that went down, but if you don’t see the ball, you can’t catch it. But the guys were otherwise really switched on, the energy was awesome and the ground fielding was fantastic,” coach Mark Boucher said.

“The Titans were able to impose a lot of pressure on our batsmen, they made our run-scoring efforts look ugly. But we didn’t execute well enough at the key moments, we should have made better decisions. We were shocking, but the Titans are a helluva team, one of the best ever in South Africa, they have so many options,” Dolphins coach Grant Morgan agreed.

Boucher admitted that he was not happy with the criticisms levelled at his team, ranging from their decision to rest players for the last two matches, having too many Proteas and a spurious allegation that they lag behind in the transformation stakes.

“I’m not paid to look after other franchises, our players know their bodies best and they were happy that they would be able to pick up the intensity again after a short rest. They were able to properly prepare for the knockout games and we put in very good training.

“We’re prepared to take criticism, we’re open to it if it helps us to improve. But it was the way things were said about us, especially the insinuation that we throw games, that made me upset. It’s the whole squad that eventually wins the cup and you always benefit from having the Proteas, but people forget that last year we did not have them and still won,” Boucher said.

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