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The allrounder clubbed a brilliant half-century, claimed two wickets and took a stunning catch

Tristan Lavalette10-Jan-2024Michael Neser starred with a spectacular all-round performance as Brisbane Heat secured the BBL’s top spot after a drought-breaking victory over nemesis Perth Scorchers at the Gabba.There was much at stake in the top-of-the table clash with Heat locking in a home qualifying final on the Gold Coast on January 19, while two-time defending champions Scorchers were unable to wrap up a finals berth.Related

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Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne made rare BBL appearances between Test commitments, but stalwart Neser stole the show.In a replay of last season’s epic final, Heat were in trouble at 91 for 5 before Neser and Sam Billings struck a belligerent 80-run partnership from 41 balls.Neser was unstoppable with 64 off 30 balls at No. 7 as Heat smashed 100 runs off the last 47 balls.Scorchers rued an unusually ragged effort in the field and were always up against chasing 192 with Neser taking two wickets and his heroic effort also included a brilliant catch to dismiss Josh Inglis.The teams will renew their rivalry on Saturday at Optus Stadium.Unbeaten Heat had been the form team of the competition, but faced a litmus test against Scorchers who had won the past six matches between the teams.After Khawaja elected to bat, the contest lived up to the hype during a frenetic powerplay laced with a flurry of boundaries and two wickets from knuckle balls by left-arm quick Jason Behrendorff.Having battled on tough Test surfaces against Pakistan, Khawaja relished the batting-friendly conditions to bludgeon three boundaries in the first over off quick Jhye Richardson.But Khawaja, who showcased the dove and olive branch symbol of peace on his bat and shoes, fell in the next over after mistiming a slower Behrendorff delivery that was well caught by Sam Whiteman low down at cover.Michael Neser celebrates his stunning catch•Getty Images

On a flat surface, Behrendorff cleverly mixed his speeds but Richardson erred by bowling too short and he was dispatched by Labuschagne for a trio of boundaries.Richardson, who was named in Australia’s ODI squad against West Indies, leaked 25 runs off his first two overs. He was shown up by typically superb new-ball bowling from Behrendorff, who knocked over Colin Munro with another clever slower ball that gripped the surface.Left-arm wrist spinner Hamish McKenzie was selected over veteran seamer Andrew Tye due to Heat’s slew of left-handed batters. He came on in the sixth over as Labuschagne and Matthew Renshaw aimed to build a partnership.But Renshaw, who was selected in Australia’s Test squad against West Indies, could not get going and he fell to left-arm spinner Ashton Agar on 18.Heat were further derailed two balls after drinks when Labuschagne nicked off for 45 to quick Lance Morris. Rather farcically Labuschagne was at the wrong end on resumption and should have been on strike instead of Billings, who then took a single off the first ball.The batters struggled to pick McKenzie, who continued an impressive debut BBL season having pushed through a back injury. He combined well with Agar, who was coming off the remarkable figures of 2 for 6 from four overs against Sydney Thunder.But Neser ignited Heat with three consecutive boundaries off Morris before Billings took over with lusty hitting after the power surge was taken late in the innings.Showcasing his ever improving batting, Neser smashed his first BBL half-century as he pummelled the previously miserly Behrendorff for three sixes in the last over to lift Heat to a total that had seemed well beyond them.Neser then dented Scorchers’ fast start in reply with the wicket of opener Zak Crawley in the third over. It was Crawley’s final BBL appearance before he heads off to England’s tour of India.Bowling at speeds around the mid-140kph, left-arm quick Spencer Johnson was a handful and his sharp short-pitched delivery accounted for Whiteman.The pressure fell on Aaron Hardie and Inglis, who bat well together. But Inglis had to take the lead when Hardie holed out on for 14 and he attacked through the off-side.He gave Scorchers hope with a 48-run partnership with Laurie Evans, who clubbed a golf-like tee shot into the stands off Neser.But Neser’s stunning catch running back to the boundary to dismiss Inglis in the power surge gave Heat a stranglehold.Evans tried to provide a late twist as he unfurled strokes similar to his recent 28-ball 85 against Adelaide Strikers. Batting deep in the crease, Evans powered to a half-century off 27 balls but ran out of support as Heat clinched a pivotal victory.

Former Surrey and Somerset chief executive will join from Bristol City FC in January 2023

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Oct-2022Richard Gould, a prominent critic of the Hundred during his tenure at Surrey, has been appointed chief executive at the ECB, beating Durham’s Tim Bostock to the role. Gould has spent the last 18 months as CEO at Bristol City Football Club but was previously involved in county cricket for 16 years, spending six years as Somerset’s chief executive before another decade in the same role at Surrey.Gould’s ECB-appointment comments focused on discrimination and inclusivity, with the ECB’s own statement noting his influential role in launching Ebony Rainford-Brent’s ACE Programme while at Surrey.”I am honoured to have been given the opportunity to lead our game forward in England and Wales as part of a talented and committed team that encompasses the ECB, every cricket club in the land, all the counties, our partners, sponsors, fans and the army of players and volunteers that support the game in every corner of our country,” he said.Related

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“Cricket is a national asset that can be played by all, and helps strengthen and enhance communities across the nation. It can inspire the country and provides opportunities for all. But we have also seen the pain suffered by those who have experienced discrimination. We are determined to repair this damage, and show that cricket can become the most inclusive and welcoming sport of all.”I look forward to taking up the role in the new year, but for now will be an armchair fan supporting our men’s team in the T20 World Cup in Australia, whilst the women prepare for their T20 World Cup challenge in February.”The ECB said in a statement that their nominations committee had “unanimously recommended” Gould to their board, which had then ratified the appointment on Friday after a lengthy recruitment process.Gould will take up his post at the end of January, with Clare Connor – who has been interim chief executive since Tom Harrison’s departure earlier this year – continuing in that role over the next three months.Gould is the second recent Surrey employee to move into a senior ECB role, after Richard Thompson was appointed as chair in August. The pair worked closely together during their time at The Oval, where they were outspoken critics of the Hundred.However, Thompson conceded shortly after starting as chair in September that his stance has softened, saying: “If the Hundred can generate significant value to the game then that’s got to be a good thing.”The competition also forms part of the ECB’s TV deal with Sky Sports, which runs until 2028, so there is no realistic prospect of it being scrapped imminently.Gould’s own position had become more conciliatory by the time he left Surrey. Shortly before leaving the club in 2021, he told Sky: “We hope the Hundred is a great success, we hope that every match here plays to a sell-out attendance and we’ll be doing our absolute utmost to make sure that is delivered.”Thompson added: “When I joined the ECB, I said that this was a reset moment for our organisation and our sport. Recruiting a CEO who can lead the organisation forwards and deliver on the vision of becoming the UK’s most inclusive sport was one of the first important steps in that. With his outstanding leadership skills and experience of managing transformation, the Nominations Committee felt that Richard Gould was the outstanding candidate.”I am looking forward to working with Richard to not only bring our game together, but to show how cricket can do so much more in bringing communities together. We will work in a spirit of collaboration and partnership with the whole cricket network to do this.”I’d also like to express my sincere thanks to Clare Connor who has done an outstanding job as Interim CEO at an incredibly challenging time for the organisation. I look forward to her continuing to play a leading role in growing our game as part of the ECB’s leadership team when Richard joins.”

The allrounder, who moved to Australia when he was 10, is able to bowl both offspin and left-arm spin

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Jun-2021Tasmania have signed the only known male ambidextrous cricketer in the Australian system with 18-year-old allrounder Nivethan Radhakrishnan joining on a rookie contract.Radhakrishnan was born in India and moved to Sydney when he was 10. He is able to bowl both offspin with his dominant right arm and left-arm spin. He has been part of the New South Wales system and represented Australia at Under-16s level.In 2019, he said he had started bowling with his left arm when he was just seven. “There wasn’t anyone in world cricket doing it at that stage,” he told . “We were very dreamy about it.”Radhakrishnan is one of two signings for Tasmania ahead of the 2021-22 season with allrounder Bradley Hope switching from Western Australia.”Brad and Nivvi are both really exciting young cricketers, and we are thrilled that they are coming to join the Tigers program and progress their careers here in Tasmania,” Jeff Vaughan, the head of Tasmania’s male program, said.The Australian game has already seen an ambidextrous bowler at professional level with Jemma Barsby, who now plays for Perth Scorchers and South Australia, able to bowl with both arms.The feat has also been seen on the international stage with Sri Lanka’s Kamindu Mendis switching between right and left-arm spin.Tasmania squad Tom Andrews, Gabe Bell, Jackson Bird, Iain Carlisle, Jake Doran, Nathan Ellis, Jarrod Freeman (rookie), Brad Hope (rookie), Caleb Jewell, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Lawrence Neil-Smith, Mitch Owen (rookie), Tim Paine (CA contract), Nivethan Radhakrishnan (rookie), Sam Rainbird, Peter Siddle, Jordan Silk, Mac Wright, Matthew Wade, Charlie Wakim, Tim Ward, Beau Webster

But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and it motivates him to be a better cricketer

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Feb-2020Adam Zampa is four years old in international cricket, and is Australia’s first-choice white-ball spinner, but he still doesn’t feel “comfortable” at this level. Although that may not necessarily be a bad thing.”Even now I don’t feel comfortable, which is probably a good thing to be honest – same as any professional cricketer at this level,” Zampa said after Australia won the Cape Town decider to seal the T20I series against South Africa. “I probably feel the same, but I haven’t been comfortable since I’ve been playing professional cricket. So, hope it’s a good thing that keeps me driven and as I said earlier, I hope for constant improvement. As I get older, get more experience, train harder and think about the game a bit different and think about it…”Zampa and left-arm fingerspinner Ashton Agar had played central roles in Australia’s 2-1 victory. While Zampa picked up five wickets at an economy rate of 5.89, Agar emerged as the top wicket-taker in the series, with eight scalps at an economy rate of 5.66. Agar took a career-best 5 for 24 in the T20I series opener, and Zampa said he relished bowling in tandem with Agar.”I’m really confident after the Big Bash and it’s nice to bowl well in this series too, but yeah it’s probably very similar for Ash,” Zampa said. “We speak about spin bowling a lot, we speak about our roles – we do a lot of preparation on the opposition and things like that we talk about a lot. And Ash keeps getting better and better every game as well. He is still a pretty young guy too. Probably took him a little bit longer because of the [holding] role he played at Perth Scorchers for a long time. But, yeah he’s a frontline bowler now, and that’s for sure. The more he plays, the better he gets.”Zampa also put the recent success down to his chemistry with Agar off the field.”Yeah, really good combination,” he said. “The best thing is we’ve got a really good friendship, and as I said before, the way we talk about it and understand that our roles might change day in and day out. So, yeah communication is huge and preparation and as I said our friendship is really close.”Australia will now turn their focus to the three-match ODI series, which begins in Paarl on Saturday, and Zampa touched upon the challenge of adapting to ODI cricket and tuning up for the T20 World Cup at home later this year.”It actually takes a bit of adapting from T20 cricket to one-day cricket,” he said. “It’s not [similar], I don’t find it to be similar at all to be honest – yeah it’s going to be a good couple of days preparation and good confidence after this win. But, I think there is a different thought to how T20 works from one-day cricket.”Yeah, I think we’ve found a really good combination. The batting side basically picks itself and then our bowling combination is really working at the moment. So, the line-up of our team is great and if we play that team going into the T20 World Cup and keep playing the way we do, we’re going to give that a serious nudge.”Zampa had just played two T20Is when he was thrown into the previous T20 World Cup in India in 2016. Zampa, 23 then, was simply happy to be part of the tournament in which Australia exited without qualifying for the semi-finals. Four years on and armed with more experience playing for Australia and Melbourne Stars in the BBL, Zampa wants to win games in the upcoming T20 World Cup.”I was just excited to be there [in 2016] and it was disappointing to lose,” he recalled. “I just look back and think wow! I’ve played a World Cup, but I think it’s a little bit different now. I’ve got the drive to win games for Australia. I think I can help that rather than thinking I’m just happy to be there.”

Plans are being considered to add a statue of the fast bowler alongside that of Garry Sobers

George Dobell in Barbados24-Jan-2019Plans are being considered to add a statue of Wes Hall outside the Kensington Oval in Barbados.Hall, now aged 81, enjoyed an excellent career as a fast bowler with West Indies before becoming a respected administrator. He also served as a minister for tourism and sport in the Barbados government and qualified as an ordained minister. He remains hugely popular in Barbados and has a stand named after him and his opening partner, Charlie Griffith, at the ground.As a player, his career highlights include the first Test hat-trick by a West Indies player – against Pakistan in 1959 – and a leading part in a maiden series victory over Australia in 1964-65. He also bowled the final over in the tied-Test at Brisbane in 1961 and helped West Indies to victory over England in 1963. Desmond Haynes recently named him among his best-ever Barbados XI.There is already a statue of Garry Sobers on the approach to Kensington Oval. Originally unveiled in Wildey, a few kilometres outside of Bridgetown, in 2002, it was moved to the ground ahead of the World Cup in the Caribbean in 2007. The plan is for the statue of Hall to complement that of Sobers, which has become something of a tourist attraction in its own right.Meanwhile, CWI has estimated that the economic impact of hosting this Test is worth up to US$40m to the Barbadian economy. With thousands of England supporters combining some cricket with their beach holidays, the hotels and restaurants of Barbados are currently thriving.”We commissioned an independent report a few years ago that said the economic impact of an England tour was approximately US$5 million a day,” Jonny Grave, the CWI chief executive, told the newspaper in Barbados. “I think there are more England fans here than the previous tour; we’re up to 7000, at least, here just for the cricket.”And I think [more] people probably would have been here in the masses if it wasn’t the hotel accommodation and flight availability. Most of the hotel rooms are full and overflowing, which is fantastic.”With this game and the two one-day internationals to come, we’re looking at probably almost conservatively US$30 million, US$40 million worth of economic impact, which is brilliant and not just for Barbados but also the millions of people back in the United Kingdom watching the cricket who have never come here on holiday or think they need to get back here on holiday.”

Group A round-up: Hyderabad concede a massive first-innings lead to Delhi, and Assam’s winless season ends with seven-wicket defeat

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Nov-2017Mayank Agarwal racked up his fifth century of the season and went past 1000 first-class runs in November alone after Karnataka took the first-innings lead against Railways at the Karnail Singh Stadium in New Delhi. Railways’ overnight pair of Arindam Ghosh and Mahesh Rawat saw off the first hour or so, but they fell apart quickly after the 201-run fifth-wicket stand was broken by legspinner Shreyas Gopal. Ghosh, resuming on 86, went on to bring up a century, while Rawat fell nine short of a ton of his own. Railways lost their last five wickets for 49 runs and conceded a first-innings lead of 101.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Shreyas, who hasn’t been able to nail down a permanent place in the XI this season, finished with 4 for 102, while offspinner K Gowtham took three.Karnataka established dominance from the get-go in their second innings, with Agarwal and R Samarth putting on 117 for the opening stand. Samarth put behind his first-innings duck with 56 before falling lbw to the medium pacer Amit Mishra. Agarwal batted on to bring up his century and was unbeaten on 104 when stumps were drawn. Giving him company was D Nischal, who was batting on 41, as Karnataka finished the penultimate day 309 runs ahead with nine wickets intact.Akshath Reddy’s century helped Hyderabad wipe out a 210-run first-innings deficit after they were made to follow-on by Delhi in Uppal. Reddy stitched together stands of 98 for the first wicket with Tanmay Agarwal and 115 for the second with Rohit Rayudu, who is playing just his second first-class match. Hyderabad ended the day on 233 for 2 – ahead by 23 runs, with Rayudu unbeaten on 61.Hyderabad began the day on 194 for 8 in their first innings and folded shortly thereafter, for 205. Kulwant Khejroliya and Vikas Mishra took the final two wickets to finish with four scalps each. Despite having already sealed their knockouts berth, Delhi pushed for an outright win and enforced the follow-on, but had to watch their bowlers toil away.Maharashtra ended an otherwise disappointing season with a thumping seven-wicket win over Assam in Pune for a mid-table finish. Assam, who had picked up a narrow first-innings lead of 26, resumed on 101 for 3, but unraveled quickly to be bowled out for 189. Naushad Shaikh led Maharashtra’s successful chase of 216 with his fourth first-class century. He was complemented well by Ankit Bawne, the captain, who was unbeaten on 52.Maharashtra’s medium-pacers triggered Assam’s second-innings implosion. Nikit Dhumal took 4 for 48 to finish with a match haul of nine wickets, while Pradeep Dadhe picked up maiden first-class five-wicket haul. Barring their top three, none of Assam’s batsmen was allowed to settle in. The seven-wicket defeat ended a winless season that relegated Assam to the bottom of the table.

In the end, the spectre of relegation did not materialise for either team, even though the heaviest defeat of their season in terms of runs left Lancashire sweating for a few hours

Jon Culley at Edgbaston23-Sep-2016
ScorecardJeetan Patel helped finish off Lancashire’s second innings•Getty Images

In the end, the spectre of relegation did not materialise for either team, even though the heaviest defeat of their season in terms of runs left Lancashire sweating for a few hours on the outcome of Hampshire’s escape bid in Southampton.Warwickshire knew they were safe at lunchtime in effect, with all three of the batsmen they had identified as most likely to deny them the win safely seen off. Lancashire were 72 for 6, having lost Haseeb Hameed, Steven Croft and Liam Livingstone in the morning session and the handshakes of congratulation exchanged between the Warwickshire players as they left the field did not seem premature.Indeed, within 50 minutes of coming out again the match was over. Lancashire did their utmost to resist, nightwatchman Simon Kerrigan manfully extending his duties to two hours and 22 minutes before he was at last winkled out by Jeetan Patel.Patel took three wickets to finish the season with 69 in the Championship, reaffirming his status as the most consistently effective spin bowler in the competition. Rikki Clarke, willingly bending his back as if he were 24 rather than 34, claimed four and Chris Wright, who has finished the summer looking rejuvenated, a couple. Their combined weight of knowledge, their ability to deliver when it matters was always likely to be too much for a Lancashire side at the other end of the spectrum in terms of experience. And so it proved.After winning a trophy at Lord’s last weekend, it has been a good week for Warwickshire. Yet no one is pretending there are not major issues to address after a season that they began with expectations – among pundits at least – that they would be pushing for the title.”It is satisfying in that the way we bowled and fielded in the first innings was exceptional, we then backed it up with the bat in the second innings and pressed home the advantage with the ball,” Warwickshire’s director of cricket Dougie Brown said.”We knew we had to play 12 good sessions and not lose our way as we have done in some games and we did that. But it is frustrating that we have left it to the last game of the season to play one of our best games.”Is everything rosy after winning a trophy? No. Because we don’t want to be fighting to stay in the division, we want to be competing for silverware on all fronts.”So we will reviewing the season as players and as a management team, looking at what we need to do.”We think we know what the conclusions will be but we need to get to the bits that are important and just make sure we have a focus during the next few weeks and months, so that we are champing at the bit at the start of next season.”Brown admits that the challenge he faces is to rejuvenate the team while still making the most of what Patel, Clarke, Wright and Keith Barker can still deliver with the ball, likewise Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott and others with the bat.”Refreshing the squad is difficult,” he said. “You are always faced with trading off performance against potential performance down the line. We know the age profile of the team is not going south, it’s going north.”But you can’t argue with the fact that Jeetan is top of the MVP ratings and Keith and Rikki are in the top 10. It would be madness to say that because these guys are older players you just cut them.”Injuries have not helped. Mark Adair would have played a lot more but he has a stress fracture in his back, as would Aaron Thomason, an extremely talented all-rounder, but he has a stress fracture in his back as well.”Bell’s season could have been better, but allowance has to be made for the refocusing he has had to make after slipping off England’s radar for the first time in more than a decade. What’s more his appetite to play on is undiminished.”It has been an adjustment for me,” he said. “The style of cricket and the amount of cricket has been different. The style of bowling is different, facing guys I have not faced before.”It has been a challenge. But I will learn from the experiences and I still want to improve. My desire is still to play for England but putting on a Warwickshire shirt means as much to me.”It does not work for everybody but I see Trescothick playing for Somerset at 40 with the same desire, likewise Paul Collingwood up at Durham and I want to go on as long as I can and win trophies.”For Ashley Giles, the previous occupant of Brown’s position and now Lancashire’s guiding force, emotions were mixed. The possibility of going down has been hard to take but he sees plenty of cause for optimism.”We have been beaten by the side, one with a wealth of experience, but you don’t like losing. It hurts,” he said. “Not winning more games has cost us, and we’ve only got ourselves to blame. Overall, if you don’t win games of cricket, you’re going to be behind the eight-ball.”There’s obviously been factors that will be pointed in my direction, such as not replacing Neil Wagner, although there were not a lot of available options. But Alviro Petersen going, we couldn’t do much about.”I will say at the same time that we’ve been able to blood some really good youngsters and we’ve seen some really good performances. I know it sounds like I’m looking for positives, but you can’t question the way Haseeb has come on, how Livingstone has come on and Rob Jones and Tom Bailey too. At the moment, we all feel pretty crap. But time’s a healer.”We outperformed expectations up front, and suddenly everyone’s going ‘we’re going to win the Championship’. That’s why I started the season saying ‘we need to stay up’. I didn’t mean that negatively. It’s because of where we are and we knew in reality it would be a struggle.”But I knew that if we consolidated our position in Division One, we’d be better for it next year. And I stand by that.”

Sri Lanka Cricket has requested that Galle curator Jayananda Warnaweera step back from preparations for next week’s Test, after he missed a meeting with the ICC’s anti-corruption security unit (ACSU) in Colombo on Wednesday

Andrew Fidel Fernando08-Oct-2015Sri Lanka Cricket has requested that Galle curator Jayananda Warnaweera step back from preparations for next week’s Test, after he missed a meeting with the ICC’s anti-corruption security unit (ACSU) in Colombo on Wednesday. Warnaweera would ordinarily oversee preparations of the surface and the ground for the first Test against West Indies, which begins on October 14, but SLC has instead asked national curator Janaka Sampath to take over at Galle.The board had been prompted to make other arrangements for this Test when ASCU staff alerted them about Warnaweera’s failure to turn up to the meeting. SLC is expected to have a clearer view of the implications of Warnaweera’s absence following a meeting between ACSU staff and SLC chairman Sidath Wettimuny this afternoon. The board is expected to make a statement some time in the next 48 hours. No official suspension of any nature has been handed down.Last Friday, Warnaweera had resigned from SLC’s interim committee, citing personal reasons. His appointment to the interim committee in March had raised minor criticism, because Warnaweera had also been an executive committee member in controversial previous administrations. At the time, then-sports minister Navin Dissanayake had postured the new board as a clean break from the past.Warnaweera could not be reached for comment. SLC officials said they had also had trouble getting through to him over the past 24 hours.

South Australia’s batsmen handed back to New South Wales the fighting chance they had been given by another fine display from Chadd Sayers on day two of the Sheffield Shield match at the SCG

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Mar-2013
ScorecardSouth Australia’s batsmen handed back to New South Wales the fighting chance they had been given by another fine display from Chadd Sayers on day two of the Sheffield Shield match at the SCG.Defending a meagre 182 on another overcast day, the Redbacks nipped through the Blues’ batting with great success before lunch, and it took a trio of 40s by Trent Copeland, Steve O’Keefe and Gurinder Sandhu to forge a narrow first-innings lead for the hosts. Sayers’ five wickets gave him 47 at 18.29 for the season.However the SA opener Alex Carey was out to Josh Hazlewood second ball of the innings, and another three wickets left NSW in with a strong chance of securing the outright win they need to overtake the Redbacks and be a chance of sneaking into the Shield final.

A round-up of the final round of matches in the 2011-12 season of the SuperSport Series

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Feb-2012With a victory as commanding as victories come, the Titans won the SuperSport Series. Their margin of an innings and 325 runs against the Dolphins in SuperSport Park is the largest in a first-class match in South Africa.The Titans began the last round of fixtures 0.68 points behind the Cobras but ensured the men from the Cape had no chance of surging ahead. Frequent weather interruptions also played a significant part in the Cobras draw with the Lions at the Wanderers.After being put in to bat, the Titans scored at over five runs an over to amass 473 for 9 declared on the first day and capture seven bonus points. By the end of play on day one, they had already taken two Dolphins wickets and went on to shoot the opposition out for less than 100 in both innings. The Dolphins made fewer runs in the match than Faf du Plessis did on his own, making it the first time since the 1988-89 season that a team has sunk to such a low.The Titans lost Jacques Rudolph early but Heino Kuhn and the captain Martin van Jaarsveld added a brisk 102 runs for the second wicket. van Jaarsveld made 50 off 74 balls but Kuhn was quicker, scoring at a strike-rate of nearly 90 during his innings of 128. When he was dismissed in the 48th over, the Titans had already scored 255.The quick scoring did not stop with Kuhn’s departure. du Plessis struck 15 fours and four sixes during his 157 off 162 balls, adding 156 for the fifth wicket with Henry Davids, who made 73 off 95 deliveries. So severe was the ransacking of the Dolphins’ bowlers – Brandon Scullard conceded 143 in 20 overs – that Titans declared after 87.1 overs, just before stumps on day one, giving their bowlers a two-over crack at the weary Dolphins openers.Neither Imraan nor Divan van Wyk got off the mark. Rowan Richards and Ethy Mbhalati dismissed them in successive overs to leave the Dolphins on 5 for 2 at stumps. Daryn Smit, the No. 3 batsman, also fell for a duck on the second morning and the collapse did not stop, with only Vaughan van Jaarsveld making more than 20. Richards, Mbhalati and CJ de Villiers took three wickets each to skittle Dolphins for 62.With a lead of 411, and his bowlers needing only 20.5 overs to dismiss Dolphins in the first innings, Martin van Jaarsveld enforced the follow-on, with telling effect. The Dolphins top three got off the mark in the second innings but none of them made it to double figures. All of them fell to Mbhalati, who went on to finish with 5 for 32. No Dolphins batsmen made it past 20 this time and they folded for 86 in 28.5 overs.The Titans had won the first-class competition in the 2008-09 season and now claimed their first trophy under the new management of Matthew Maynard and Martin van Jaarsveld. When Maynard took over at the start of the season he was told that he would have to win at least seven trophies out of a possible nine in his three-year tenure.Titans’ emphatic win at SuperSport Park meant the Cobras had no chance of defending their title after the first three days of their match were affected by rain and bad light. The Cobras put the Lions in under cloudy skies and had early reward when Stephen Cook was bowled by Rory Kleinveldt for 4. Alviro Petersen and Gulam Bodi grew roots and put on 131 for the second wicket. The pair scored slowly and denied the Cobras any chance of a point. Their attack only had rewards late on the first day when Bodi and Neil McKenzie were dismissed within 11 runs of each other.The Lions middle order was strong again, with Temba Bavuma continuing his fantastic debut season with 64, and Chris Morris contributing with 60 at No. 8. They were eventually bowled out for 410 on the third day.The Cobras had to score quickly to have any chance of staying in the match but stuttered through the early part of their innings. Yaseen Vallie* was the major contributor with a career best 167 and starts from everyone else gave the Cobras a 10-run lead. Morris’ good all-round performance continued with 4 for 100.With a draw looking the likeliest result, the Lions batted sedately to just before 4pm before the teams shook hands and ended the game. Their captain, Petersen, did not bat in the second innings but ended the competition as the top run-scorer – 816 runs at an average of 62.76.A dead rubber was played in Port Elizabeth, where the Knights beat the Warriors by 161 runs.The Knights had a tough first innings and were bowled out for 240, with Johann van der Wath the top-scorer with 79. Arno Jacobs scored a massive 152 and Ashwell Prince got 60 to take the Warriors to 318, a lead of 78. The match remained a tight affair in the third innings. Morne van Wyk’s 155 and Ryan McLaren’s 90 led the Knights to 373 in their second innings.The Warriors were set 205 to win but collapsed to 134 all out. Quinton Friend took six wickers and Werner Coetsee claimed four for the Knights. The Warriors do have the competition’s top bowler in their ranks. Simon Harmer ended the season with 44 scalps at an average of 31.75.*04:00 GMT, Feb 13: This story previously said that Stiaan van Zyl’s 167 gave Cobras the lead. This has been corrected