Nabe bowler of the match as Warriors lose against Western Province Blitz

The second round of the Cricket SA (CSA) T20 Challenge kicked off with Momentum Multiply Titans taking on the Gbets Rocks on Wednesday.

The Rocks won the toss and elected to field, and the Titans got off to a great start early in the game as opening batters Quinton de Kock and Gihahn Cloete held a firm partnership of 106 runs before the fall of the first wicket in the 13th over. 

De Kock’s 72 off 61 (5 boundaries and 1 six) and Cloete’s 53 off 41 (6 boundaries and 1 six) followed by an unbeaten 27 off 17 from Donovan Ferreira saw the Titans end their innings on 158/2.

With the target set on 159, the Malan brothers had a solid 67-run partnership before receiving a call from Tabraiz Shamsi, dismissing Pieter Malan for 19 off 17.

Janneman Malan’s 45 off 31 (1 boundary and 4 sixes) and Michael Copeland’s 39 off 33 (2 fours and 1 six) steadied the innings in the middle.

But the Titans’ bowlers continued to apply pressure on the Rocks batters, with Aaron Phangiso taking 2/20 in 4 overs and Junior Dala (3/36 in 4 overs), resulting in the fall of three wickets in the final two overs and the Rocks ending their innings on 155/8, losing the game by 3 runs.

In the second match of the day between the Six Gun Grill Western Province Blitz and Gbets Warriors, the Warriors won the toss and elected to bat first.

The Warriors saw the early wickets of Matthew Breetzke and Jon-Jon Smuts, but opener Wihan Lubbe held the innings with an unbeaten 69 off 59 (6 fours and 1 six) and with the support of Lesiba Ngoepe 36 off 20 (5 boundaries and 1 six), Tristan Stubbs (21) and Diego Rosier (18), they set a defendable total of 163/5.

Western Province Blitz opening batter Richard Levi, got off to a fiery start, hitting five fours and three sixes before being dismissed by Tiaan van Vuuren with 40 runs in 17 balls.

His partnership with Jonathan Bird (39 off 26 — 4 boundaries and 1 six) — laid a solid foundation as the Western Province Blitz were 63/0 in the fourth over.

This was followed by an unbeaten partnership between Dane Vilas (33*) and George Linde (34*) which saw the Western Province Blitz finish the game on 164-3 in 17.1 overs, winning the game by 7 wickets.

Warriors’ Mthiwekhaya Nabe earned a bowler of the match performance with 2/18 in 3 overs.

The second round of the tournament continues on Thursday as North West Dragons take on the ITEC Knights at 10am while the Hollywoodbets Dolphins take on the Imperial Lions at 2.30pm.