Four-Day title shared as patient Pretorius keeps Lions at bay

Such bitter adversaries off and, in the last few days, on the field, the DP World Lions and Momentum Multiply Titans will share the Four-Day Series after a gripping final in which the time lost over the first two days ultimately proved too much to overcome.

It took a monumental effort from 19-year-old Lhuan-dre Pretorius, showing a different side to his game than the one the public first witnessed in the SA20, who batted for more than five hours to score his third century — 114 — in this season’s competition to help the Titans to hang on for a draw. 

Besides being a final, the fact that it was just his fifth First Class match means any notion that he should be pigeonholed as a white-ball-only player should be set aside. 

While the ending to this clash was limp, until tea on Monday it had been a hard-fought encounter, which the Lions largely dominated, until Pretorius’ arrival at the crease late on Sunday evening. 

At that stage emotions were running high after an altercation between Dewald Brevis and Bjorn Fortuin, with the Lions, their tails up, looking forward to delivering the coup de grace on the last day. 

Strangely however, given how hyped they were on Sunday evening, the players were quite subdued when play resumed on Monday. Gone was the chirping that seemed to accompany almost every delivery on Sunday, while the bowling in the opening hour from Lutho Sipamla and Codi Yusuf, lacked consistency. 

The Titans would have been determined to repel their neighbours, undoubtedly spurred on by the Brevis/Fortuin incident themselves, while the acrimony about when the match started and then the two tosses still lingered. 

The Lions weren’t able to create anywhere close to the kind of pressure they exerted on the Titans batters over the weekend, and Keegan Petersen and Pretorius looked comfortable during the opening session in which there was little movement off the pitch for the seamers, and any spin Fortuin was able to extract, was dealt with easily. 

Fortuin did produce the only chance when Pretorius flicked a delivery off his legs, but Joshua Richards stationed at short-leg got into a tangle and dropped what for that position was a relatively easy chance when the powerful left-hander had 26.

Otherwise Pretorius’ concentration was exemplary and his defence, which can look unconventional, was sufficiently solid to draw the fire from the home team’s attack.

His battle with Fortuin, who finished with 5/123 from 48 overs, was critical to how the day unfolded. The Lions’ crafty left-arm spinner, had some rough areas to work with bowling from the Corlett Drive End but whatever he tried was answered by Pretorius' broad blade. 

Most notable was the balance Pretorius showed between defence and aggression. At no stage did he retreat into his shell, and when he felt he could attack, he struck the ball with thunderous power and magnificent timing, hitting 13 fours off the 209 balls he faced.

The only success for the Lions in the first two sessions came via superb wicketkeeping from Conor Esterhuizen, who engineered a leg-side stumping of Petersen for 75 off medium pacer Delano Potgieter.

Rivaldo Moonsamy, who forged a thrilling opening partnership with Pretorius in the One-Day Cup, showed plenty of steel himself, scoring 75 and sharing a 140-run stand for the fifth wicket. 

Despite three wickets late in the day for Fortuin — that included both Moonsamy and Pretorius — which saw the Titans bowled out for 371, the shadow cast by the Memorial Stand, ensured bad light put paid to the Lions’ hopes of doubling their trophy county this season.