Titans coach Mandla Mashimbyi has described the past season as below par for one of the country’s most successful franchises of recent years.

The Centurion-based outfit failed to qualify for a limited-overs play-off for the first time since 2006-7, although they only had one bite at the cherry because of the schedule not including a domestic T20 competition.

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Nonetheless, missing out on the One-Day Cup top four was a major disappointment in an overall poor season by their high standards.

And Mashimbyi, who succeeded new Proteas coach Mark Boucher at the Titans, admits it was a poor year. ‘To be frank, I think we were probably below par. We didn’t play the way we would have liked to play,’ he said.

‘There were times where we would play good cricket, but we were nowhere near any sort of consistency. At other times we were just very poor.’

The last instance where the Titans missed out on limited-over play-offs altogether was 13 years ago when they ended fifth in the Domestic Pro20 and bottom of the Domestic Championship table.

They were, however, runners-up in the 4-Day Domestic Series this past term, ending a close second behind the champions Lions. That position could have been even better too had COVID-19 not struck prematurely to terminate the season in unprecedented circumstances.

Eventually the first-class season ended up having just eight matches instead of the usual 10.

But Mashimbyi felt they were just not good enough. ‘I know we finished second in one competition, but we scraped it to be honest, whilst in the other competition we ended fifth,’ he explained. ‘In both the red and white-ball seasons there were times where we played good cricket, but there were more times when we were poor. So that’s my general take.’

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