Titans and Lions served up gripping conclusion to 2024-25 season

A tale of two tosses for a match that was scheduled for five days, but ended up being three, wet outfields, dodgy run-ups and a messed up landing area for the fast bowlers at the Golf Course End. 

The Four-Day Series final, which ended on Monday in a draw between bitter provincial rivals the DP World Lions and Momentum Multiply Titans, was packed with incidents, even if Cricket SA tried its best to ignore the whole thing.

There were some riveting passages of play. On a gloomy Saturday evening the short burst from Lutho Sipamla was as good as fast bowling gets. “It was almost Test match intensity in that period,” said Lions captain Dominic Hendricks. 

Tempers were frayed and emotions boiled over on Sunday evening, leading to an appearance in front of the match referee for Bjorn Fortuin, who got into a verbal stoush with Dewald Brevis that almost turned physical. 

Fortuin copped a Level 1 sanction — basically a reprimand. “Certain challenges were presented to us and as a leader for my team, I should stand up to those challenges, not just in the context of the game but to protect the integrity of our team as well,” said Fortuin. “No lines were crossed. We played hard, but we played fair.”

Less fair was the toss and that it had to be conducted twice on Friday, because match referee Gerrie Pienaar wanted to ensure it was carried live for the streaming broadcast on CSA’s YouTube channel.

“I thought the match referee should have taken a bit more control,” said Hendricks.

Titans skipper Neil Brand said: “I was pretty angry, for me it should have been handled better.” 

Hendricks admitted his mistake in the incident, saying he’d misheard someone — either Pienaar or the streaming director — say to flick the coin in the air. That ‘first toss’ landed in Brand’s favour, but Pienaar scratched it off because the cameras weren’t ready. 

When they were, Hendricks tossed again, this time the coin fell in his favour and he took the understandable decision to bat. He and Brand agreed it gave the Lions a major advantage.

“I didn’t say much to the team, I kept it to myself,” said Brand. “I don’t think it affected us, we wanted to bat. Batting, with those run-ups was an advantage.”

Hendricks said: “There’s not much I could have done. If I was in [Brand’s] situation I would have definitely said, ‘Guys there’s clearly been a mistake.’”

The Lions racked up 413/7 declared, with Zubayr Hamza scoring an excellent 103. They then bowled the Titans out for 123, correctly enforced the follow-on, and though they bowled the Titans out for 371 a second time, too much time was lost in the match for the hosts to force a win. 

The first day was cancelled, the run-ups especially at the Corlett Drive End were still very damp, pushing back the start of play on day two by more than three hours, while the landing area at the Golf Course End had to be repaired 45 minutes after the match started on Friday.

“We are disappointed, mostly because we lost so much time in the game. Had we not, then definitely there would have been a chance for us to push for the result,” Hendricks said.

At least an hour’s play was lost every day due to bad light but there was also outstanding resistance on the final day from Lhuan-dre Pretorius, who made his third first class century (114) in just his fifth match, Keegan Petersen, who continued his late season revival with two half-centuries (50 and 75) and Rivaldo Moonsamy’s gritty 79 in the second innings.

“These last five days really brought us tighter together as a group, I’m really proud of that. It was a feisty game and we backed each other and it showed today with the fight we put up,” said Brand. 

The Titans finished the season as runners-up in the T20 Challenge, which they lost to the Lions, semi-finalists in the One-Day Cup and with a share of the Four-Day title. 

Fortuin described the Lions’ season as decent, saying they let themselves down in a disappointing One-Day Cup campaign in which they won just two matches.

Hendricks was less critical of the Gauteng team’s season. “Any season where we win more than one trophy is phenomenal, even though this one is shared,” he said.