A well-timed declaration and some excellent bowling by Basheer Walters, coupled with keen fielding and catching, led to the Warriors’ second win of the season at Buffalo Park in East London on Monday.
The Port Elizabeth-based team handsomely beat the Multiply Titans by 216 runs about half an hour before the tea interval on the final day of a most entertaining four-day franchise match.
The Warriors took their overnight score of 254/5 to 310/7 after 40 minutes of aggressive batting before declaring, with skipper Jon-Jon Smuts taking his score from 49 to 75 not out (12 x 4).
The declaration set the visitors 353 to win in 84 overs, a rate of 4.2 to the over on a pitch that was giving a bit of help to the spinners.
Thus it was that off-spinner Simon Harmer opened the bowling with Glenton Stuurman. The paceman made the first beakthrough when opener Andrea Agathangelou was snapped up by a diving Harmer in the slips for a duck.
Then Harmer struck with the ball. The dangerman, hardhitting Jonathan Vandiar, was caught in the slips by Colin Ackermann without scoring and the Titans were reeling at 5/2 in the fourth over.
Walters was brought on in place of Stuurman and tasted immediate success.
The experienced international wicketkeeper-batsman Heinrich Klaasen, who was top-scorer for the Titans in the first innings, was caught behind the wicket by Sinethemba Qeshile and, two balls later, Farhaan Berhardien, always a thorn in the side of the Warriors, had to go, out in exactly the same manner for a duck.
A run later, it was time for opener Tony de Zorzi to take the long walk back to the pavilion. He was rapped on the pads and given out lbw to a rampant Walters.
Walters at that stage had taken three wickets for no runs and had ripped the heart out of the Titans’ batting lineup.
The visitors limped into lunch at 47 for five wickets with Henry Davids on 14 and Shaun von Berg on eight.
The third ball after the interval saw the downfall of Davids, bowled by Harmer, and the spinner struck again two overs later when he had Eldred Hawken caught by Lesiba Ngoepe for a duck.
Thereafter there was some resistance from Von Berg, who never gives his wicket away cheaply, and he and young allrounder Corbin Bosch steadily added 83 for the eighth wicket.
Smuts bowled Von Berg for 37 and two runs later it was all over, with Walters getting rid of both Tshepo Moreki and Bosch, who made 59, his second half-century of the match, caught on the boundary.
Walters finished with 5/35 in two fiery spells. Harmer finished with 3/59.
Man-of-the-match Eddie Moore, who made his highest career score of 151 in the Warriors’ first innings, considered it an honour to gain the award.
“I’m delighted, particularly as it helped us win the match.”