The Dolphins ripped out 14 wickets on a frenetic third day to move to the brink of a big victory over the Titans in their Sunfoil Series match at Kingsmead on Monday.
Kyle Abbott and Craig Alexander each claimed three wickets as the Titans were bowled out for 208 to concede a 300-run deficit on first innings, and then picked up two more apiece as the Titans were forced to follow on.
The visitors will now go into the final day on 175-7 in their second dig, still needing 125 runs to make the Dolphins bat again.
The Titans began the third day on 107-3 in their first innings, but lost five wickets in a disastrous first session.
Roelof van der Merwe had added two runs to his overnight score of nine when he was bowled by Abbott, who went on to have Mangaliso Mosehle caught behind in his next over.
With David Wiese caught off the bowling of Alexander the Titans had lost three wickets for 13 runs in 22 balls, and it wasn’t long before Shaun von Berg fell to Keshav Maharaj.
Farhaan Behardien had scored freely throughout after resuming on his overnight score of 22, but he was dismissed by Alexander for 96 from just 156 balls shortly before the lunch break to leave the tail fully exposed.
The Dolphins wrapped up the tail shortly after the interval before sticking the Titans back in, and it wasn’t long before Abbott and Maharaj had accounted for Heino Kuhn and Henry Davids respectively.
Behardien managed just 20 in his second knock before he was stumped off the bowling of Maharaj, while Theunis de Bruyn was guilty of failing to convert when he was caught behind for 77 off the bowling of Ryan McLaren.
Van der Merwe made a similar mistake to De Bruyn as he got to 40 and then got out to Abbott, before Alexander picked up the wickets of Mosehle and Von Berg late in the day.
Wiese (five) and Marchant de Lange (two) will be the batsmen responsible for taking the game as deep as possible when play resumes on Tuesday morning.
Abbott returned the best figures of the game so far, picking up 3-45 in the first innings and 2-26 in the second, while Alexander has a combined 5-114.
