Simon Harmer and Andrew Birch struck the ball clean and long to stun The Unlimited Titans and give the Warriors a memorable win as the Momentum One-Day Cup got underway with a high-scoring thriller at SuperSport Park on Friday.
Jon-Jon Smuts’ whirlwind hundred looked likely to be wasted when the Warriors fell to 230 for six chasing 328 for victory, leaving 98 runs required at more than 10 per over when Harmer and Birch came together.
Yet the pair duly hammered five sixes and seven fours between them in an 89-run stand that changed the course of the match, with Birch scoring his maiden List A fifty.
The drama was heightened when Harmer was trapped lbw by Junior Dala for 42 in the penultimate over of the innings, leaving Birch (55 not out from 28 balls) and Basheeru-Deen Walters to find eight runs in the final over.
Walters delivered the final blow off the penultimate delivery when he carved Rowan Richards through extra cover for four to seal a win for which Smuts, who was named man of the match, deserved a great deal of credit.
The opener blazed his way to three figures in the first 23 overs of the chase, before running out of steam and feathering a delivery from Ethy Mbhalati through to the keeper to depart for 101 (74 balls, 14x4s, 2x6s).
The Titans total of 327 for four had enjoyed contributions from all six batsmen, with Mangaliso Mosehle setting the platform at the top of the innings before the middle order cashed in.
Mosehle shared a 50-run stand with Theunis de Bruyn (26) for the second wicket and added another 48 for the third with Dean Elgar, before falling one run short of a half-century when he was undone by Harmer’s Carrom ball.
Elgar (57) took up the mantle from there as he went on to score 57, but the real damage was done after he departed as Grant Thomson and Qaasim Adams put on an unbroken stand of 119 in the final 70 deliveries of the innings.
Adams enjoyed a slice of luck when he was dropped on 24, and went on to finish unbeaten on 65 from 39 balls, but Thomson’s innings was the real highlight for the home crowd as he hit two sixes and nine fours on his way to 98 not out from 71 deliveries.
He had the opportunity to record his first List A hundred, but could only manage a single off the last ball of the innings. - Cricket South Africa