PAUL HARRIS had the
perfect 30th birthday party as he returned career best match and
innings figures to send the Nashua Titans soaring to top position on the
SuperSport Series log.
His second innings
return of 7/94 was the best of his career as was his match return of 12/180 in
78 overs with 24 maidens, the first time in his career that he has taken 10 or
more wickets in a match.
The result was a
comprehensive victory for the Titans by 139 runs over the defending champion
Gestetner Diamond Eagles who had been the previous log leaders and now drop
down to second place. They are the only two teams with two outright victories
after completion of the fourth round of matches.
The 20 wickets taken by
the Titans all went to their spinners – Harris (12), Imran Tahir (5), Faf du
Plessis (2) and Martin van Jaarsveld (1).
Harris' outstanding man
of the match performance appropriately coming just two weeks before the start
of the Castle Test series against Bangladesh rather overshadowed the
brilliant century of Diamond Eagles opening batsman Dean Elgar.
The left-hander defied
the spin-dominated attack for more than five hours in making 155 (276 balls, 22
fours and two sixes). It was his fifth first-class century and significantly he
now has a career statistic of five centuries and six half-centuries for an
excellent conversion rate. His average is now a benchmark 43 which is top rate
considering that he plays most of his home matches on bowler friendly wickets.
The other two matches
that finished on Sunday were both drawn although the Chevrolet Warriors might
well have forced victory over the Nashua Dolphins at Sahara Stadium Kingsmead
but for the intervention of bad light that cost 10 overs.
The Dolphins were seven
down at the finish as Makhaya Ntini and Lonwabo Tsotsobe once again cut through
their top order. In the first innings they reduced the home side to 22/3 and in
the second to 33/5 before Imraan Khan (66 in 195 minutes, 160 balls, 12 fours)
and Daryn Smit (68 not out, 118 balls, 12 fours) pulled off a rescue act.
Ntini's nine wickets
including six in the first innings earned him the man of the match award.
The Nashua Cape Cobras
made a gallant effort to force victory over the bizhub Highveld Lions at Paarl
when they set a target of 189 in 40 overs. But the visitors showed little
interest in chasing the target down in a match in which the run rate seldom got
over three to the over.
Cobras captain Andrew
Puttick got a half-century in each innings while Stephen Cook got a century for
the Lions and Vaughn van Jaarsveld 98.
Stiaan van Zyl's fluent
71 in the first innings won him the man of the match award.
Log positions: Nashua Titans 47.32,
Gestetner Diamond Eagles 43.26, Chevrolet Warriors 37.98, bizhub Highveld Lions
31.92, Nashua Dolphins 27.90, Nashua Cape Cobras 20.10
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