Titans rope in the big guns to stave off relegation

The emergency buttons were pushed at SuperSport Park this week as the Multiply Titans sought to extricate themselves from a dreadful — and for that union, highly unusual — hole in the CSA Four-Day Series.

A single round of fixtures is being played this week before a host of players head to training camps ahead of the SA20, which starts on December 26.

The next time the players will don their provincial whites is at the end of January, when two more rounds are scheduled, with the final pencilled in for February between the teams finishing first and second on the points table. The log-leaders will host that match.

Coming into this week’s round, North West sat atop the table, but it is the sight of the Titans — the most dominant provincial team in the past 15 years — propping up the table that is cause for concern in Centurion.

Ahead of their match against the HollywoodBets Dolphins, the Titans found themselves 14 points adrift of the KZN-Inland Tuskers on the Four-Day points table. It has left the Titans precariously placed on the promotion/relegation table, where points are earned via the position teams finish on the logs of the three provincial competitions and not whether they reach the final or win the competition.

The Titans ended sixth in the T20 Challenge, giving them three points, putting them only above the Tuskers, who came up from Division 2 last season in the promotion/relegation table.

The Titans, like the Lions who are also struggling this season, have been victims of their own success in developing players for national selection and in a season that has featured the Proteas and SA A team touring Pakistan and then India, playing matches across formats, both unions have been the most affected.

The Titans have used 20 players this season in the four Four-Day Series matches. Lungi Ngidi, Aiden Markram and Dewald Brevis haven’t been able to play at all, Gerald Coetzee played once, then got injured while on international duty, while Simon Harmer, who signed in the off-season, is playing in his first match this week. The player of the series in the Proteas’ historic Test triumph in India is also captaining the side, a sign of the leadership vacuum that exists.

The Titans’ starting XI also includes Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Rivaldo Moonsamy — two players who’ve been away with the Proteas and SA A this season. That injection of talent had the desired effect, with the Titans reducing the Dolphins to 88/8 before rain halted play at lunch time on a lively first-day pitch at SuperSport Park.

Marco Jansen’s twin brother Duan and the equally lanky Janco Smit took three wickets each, giving the hosts a perfect start as they search for their first win of the season.

Their provincial neighbours the Lions aren’t in quite the same pickle but have nevertheless roped in Wiaan Mulder and Zubayr Hamza for their match at the Wanderers against Boland. Both were part of the Test squad in India recently, while Bjorn Fortuin, Delano Potgieter, Nqaba Peter and Connor Esterhuizen were also part of the SA A side that toured India.

The Lions were well placed on 135/2 when rain interrupted play on Tuesday, thanks to Hamza’s unbeaten 66, while dependable skipper Dominic Hendricks made 51, his 57th first-class half-century.

While the depth available for the national side has been understandably praised, it has put pressure on the provinces because of the promotion/relegation element that is at play.

Teams like Boland, who finished first in the T20 Challenge, and North West have signed solid provincial players but not ones likely to push for national selection, so their campaigns in the two competitions so far haven’t been upset as much as those of the Lions, Titans and even Western Province.

It has brought into question the need for promotion/relegation, which CSA is still discussing as part of broader plans regarding the restructuring of the domestic game, to ensure the sustainability of the sport.