Tabraiz Shamsi took his best figures of the tournament as the Titans knocked out the Warriors for 143 in the Ram Slam T20 semi-final.
The Warriors needed their big guns to perform as they searched for a consecutive final, but they were instantly on the back foot, losing both their openers for 17 runs after two overs. Colin Ingram sparked them into life with a 28-ball 41 taking his side to 80 in the 10th over before losing his wicket cheaply to Aiden Markam.
There was still hope for the visitors with Colin Ackermann at the crease, but the tournament’s top wicket-taker Shamsi put the Warriors to bed by flipping the match on its head.
He started with a double strike in the 14th over. He removed the dangerous combination of Christiaan Jonker (15) and Ackermann (48 off 31 balls), starting with Jonker whose top edge found its way to Lungi Ngidi at fine leg. He then fooled Ackermann with a straight delivery to trap him lbw two runs short of a milestone.
He backed this up with a brace in his final over, taking out Gihan Cloete (6) lbw after he missed out on a reverse sweep and then bamboozled Lesiba Ngoepe with great turn to find his edge for a duck.
The Warriors were on 135-7 after Shamsi’s heroics, before two wickets from Junior Dala and a scalp from Chris Morris wrapped things up as they were all out for a below-par 143 in 18.1 overs.
Shamsi finished with figures of 4-32, taking his wickets tally to 16 in 10 games, four above Cobras fast bowler Dane Paterson in second place.
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Photo: Lee Warren/Gallo Images
