SA20 stars bolster Titans for One-Day Cup

Northerns Titans captain Neil Brand is looking forward to the One-Day Cup after welcoming back players who impressed in the SA20. KHUNULOGO MPOLOKENG reports.

The Titans are hoping to get their campaign off to a good start against Boland in Paarl on Sunday after the disappointment of failing to make the final last year.

“We haven’t done as well as we would have liked in the one-day competition in the last couple of seasons, but a lot of planning has gone into this competition,” said Brand.

“We’ve luckily had a few guys in our squad who’ve done really well in the SA20, like Lhuan-dre [Pretorius] and [Dewald] Brevis, so having them back is massive for us, and hopefully we’ll hit the ground running in Paarl on Sunday.”

The Titans will play the majority of their league games away from home in this season’s 50-over competition, with only three at home – against the Central Gauteng Lions (Wednesday, 19 February), the KZN Dolphins (Sunday, 23 February) and the EP Warriors (Sunday, 2 March).

However, Brand says they have good reason not to mind having to travel more than hosting games.

“In the recent years we’ve actually done a lot better away from home, if you look at our stats. I think the nature of our bowling attack, with our good spinners, has made us quite effective away from home.

“But the big emphasis this year is to dominate at home; we’ve got three good home games, so hopefully we can win those and hopefully we can start with the win on Sunday against Boland, which would put us in a good position.

“You have to start a tournament like this well, there are only seven games. You want to be up in the top three, especially in these short tournaments; momentum is massive for us.

“We’ve put in all the hard work; having everyone back from the SA20 has been great to see, everyone is excited to be back putting on a Titans shirt, and what we’re trying to achieve is to make everyone proud to play for the Titans and we want to produce Proteas players.”

Having finished in fifth position on the log in this competition last season, a domestic season which they finished empty-handed, the all-rounder says they have, however, learned important lessons from the previous campaign.

“The biggest thing for us is that we’ve got quite a powerful batting lineup and in the past we’ve kind of pulled the trigger a bit too early and not batted the full 50 overs. So there’s a big emphasis in this competition to try and make sure that we take it a bit deeper.

“We know we’ve got power in the hut that can win you games in those last 10 overs; so it will be about dominating those middle periods and hitting the sweepers hard.

“And with the bowling, we’ve been excellent in the powerplay, I think it’s just about taking more wickets in the middle periods; hopefully we can find a way to do that this season with our spinners.

“We’ve got Roelof van der Merwe back, who will be massive for us in the middle; Tsepo Ndwandwa has been excellent with the ball for us this season, so hopefully we can control the games in the middle with our spinners and the confidence and momentum will come back.”

ALSO: Lions target fast start in One-Day Cup

The Pretoria-based side will go into the One-Day Cup led by a new head coach in Richard das Neves following the departure of Mandla Mashimbyi, who is now coach of the Proteas Women.

Brand says there is still confidence in the man at the helm.

“For as long as I’ve been at the Titans, Mandla has been around, so it is a bit strange not having him there. But in saying that, Dassie is a very good planner and thinks quite far ahead, and he’s done well with the Paarl Royals now, so it’s been good to get new insight.

“Everyone is working really hard, there are a lot of structures at training and we’re really excited to get going.”