The Hollywoodbets Dolphins were assisted by the weather and an incredible batting performance from Jason Smith to secure them an unbelievable seven-wicket DLS CSA T20 Challenge win over the Momentum Multiply Titans at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Friday afternoon.
It dumps the Titans out of the competition, but they will be wondering how it happened, after watching some of the cleanest hitting from Smith as he struck nine sixes and two fours in an unbeaten 68 off 19 balls to secure his team a spot in the playoffs.
At the halfway stage the Titans will have felt they did enough to win the match, after Rivaldo Moonsamy, Heinrich Klaasen and Lhuan-dre Pretorius all smashed half centuries to power them to a daunting 248-3 in their 20 overs.
But at the interval lightening and rain arrived, delaying play for over an hour, with the Dolphins then set a slightly more manageable DLS adjusted score of 104 to get off seven overs, as they just needed one batter to come off, and so it proved in the end.
Titans bowler Duan Jansen did everything he could, conceding just four off the first over, and picked up two wickets in his second, having Bryce Parsons (19) caught by Junior Dala and Jon Jon Smuts edging behind to keeper Moonsamy for a first-ball duck, with just 16 coming off his two overs.
But the key moment came at the end of the second over when Lizaad Williams bowled Khaya Zondo (12), with the score 18-1.
Smith walked in and after a dot off his first ball, never looked back as he tore into the Titans' bowlers.
Williams went for 35 in his two overs, while captain Roelof van der Merwe conceded 18 in one and Donovan Ferreira and Dayyaan Galiem 17 each in their single overs, with no one spared from Smith’s amazing onslaught.
BOX-OFFICE BATTING
In the first innings it was a box office batting performance from the hosts, led by opener Moonsamy, that powered them to a huge total.
Moonsamy dealt in sixes in his innings, hitting nine of them along with two fours, in his 82 off 49 balls, and it was his 131-run opening stand with Pretorius, 55 off 36 (6x4; 2x6), that set the platform for Klaasen to launch six sixes and five fours in a brilliant unbeaten 68 off 24 down the back end.
Moonsamy and Pretorius got off to a decent start, with 34 runs coming off the first four overs, before they opened up a bit off the final two overs of the powerplay, getting to 55-0 by the end of it.
The Titans really kicked into gear in the ninth over bowled by Tristan Luus, with Moonsamy cracking two sixes, while a four from Pretorius saw 19 come off it, while the 100 came up in the 10th as another 14 was score, with Moonsamy reaching his half century with another six.
Pretorius brought up his half-century with a single in the 11th over, but in the 12th became the first to fall, Anrich Nortje making the breakthrough just after being hit for four, with the batter feathering an under edge to keeper Gomolemo Phiri.
But that didn’t slow down the hosts as that brought in Klaasen, and they continued plundering runs at will, as the new batter hammered a four and six off Parsons in the 14th as the Titans crossed the 150-run mark with 14 coming off it.
Moonsamy crashed 19 runs off Smuts in the 15th over, smashing two sixes and a four, before his fun came to an end in the 16th over, as he mistimed Nqobani Mokoena to Eathan Bosch at mid off with the score 175-2.
Bosch then disappeared for 25 runs in the 17th over, as new man Ferreira (12) knocked a six, while Klaasen added a four and two sixes over deep square leg to keep them going, before the new batter sacrificed his wicket, run out by some superb fielding from Andile Simelane to keep Klaasen in.
That paid off handsomely as Klaasen tucked into Nortje’s last over, bashing two fours and two sixes as 21 came off it.
MOMENTUM MULTIPLY TITANS: Rivaldo Moonsamy, Lhuan-dre Pretorius (wk), Sibonelo Makhanya, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Donovan Ferreira, Lethabo Phahlamohlaka, Dayyaan Galiem, Duan Jansen, Roelof van der Merwe (capt), Junior Dala, Lizaad Williams
HOLLYWOODBETS DOLPHINS: Tshepang Dithole, Bryce Parsons, Khaya Zondo, Jason Smith, Jon-Jon Smuts (capt), Gomolemo Phiri (wk), Eathan Bosch, Andile Simelane, Nqobani Mokoena, Tristan Luus, Anrich Nortje