Cricket Titans

Tagged by SA cricket. We are playing against Faf and David Miller🤪

CALL US AND WIN % TICKETS TO THE MATCH

At 10am on Sunday 10 February, SuperSport Park will once again come alive with the hugely popular Titans Day – in conjunction with the Momentum One Day Cup that’ll see the Multiply Titans take on the VKB Knights

Titans Cricket CEO Dr Jacques Faul says that the day is always a hit:

“We’ve teamed up with Women and Men Against Child Abuse for the campaign with the logo appearing on the playing kit. We are also excited to announce that the band Wonderboom will be performing during the innings break which will certainly make for a fun family day out! We encourage friends and families to join us for cricketing action and top class entertainment this Sunday.”

Tickets are available from R40 from ticketpro.co.za or at the stadium.

The Pretoria News and the Titans are giving away 5 tickets to the match for one lucky winner and four friends.

To win this prize please call Pretoria News by 4pm today on 012 309 2207 and answer the question: Who sponsors the Titans?

Provide your name and cellphone number and one random winner will be drawn from all the correct entries.

If you are notified that you are the winner you can collect the tickets at the Stadium ticket office by supplying your name, surname and cell number. Cricket Titans SuperSport Park

Titan’s crush IM, make a ‘statement’

New ground, new opponent but the same result – a crushing defeat for the opponents - IM.

Titan’s lost the toss and were asked to bat in the 16 over match played at a Royal Garden, Palam Vihar. The lush green fields of this new venue were fully soaked with overnight dew, when the opening pair of Amit & Deb walked in to bat. Deb couldn’t trouble the scorers and was stumped in the first over but Amit was in his elements with exquisite leg glances and fine touches towards the off side. Match skipper Sumeet came in next was dismissed for 6 to a good short pitch delivery. Rishi provide a good support to Amit and the duo stabilized the innings but he got run out after scoring 10 runs. Ruchir came in next and to carry the innings forward and his partnership with Amit broke in the 10th over when Amit was caught on log-off after a well made 36. With score hovering around 70 runs in 10 over, Titans were looking to score around 100 but Lokesh, the new batsman, playing first time for Titan’s joined Ruchir and the duo smacked IM blowers all around the park. Lokesh got out in the final over for a quick fire 30, while Ruchir was not out at 45. CT scored a mammoth 139 with half of the runs coming in last 6 overs.

The new look Titan’s bowling attack gave them a superb start as Jagran started the blowing for Titan’s and removed the openers very early in the match. Deb provided a great support to Jagran as the duo bowled an impeccable line and length with some unplayable deliveries. The Titan’s were also benefited due the proactive captaincy by the match skipper Sumeet who not only took some fav catches behind the wicket but also rotated the bowlers very well. Anupam and Ruchir continued the pressure on IM with a very disciplined bowling and were backed by some great fielding by Titan’s. Captain Sumeet shuffled the 5th bowler, with Lokesh, Vaibhav and Varun bowling an over each.

IM could only manage 99 runs for 8 wickets in the allotted 16 overs. Jagran was the pick of the blowers for Titan’s and took 5 wickets, Anupam chipped in with 2 crucial wickets, while Viabhav took 1. Hem was the top scorer for IM with 33 runs followed by Harmandeep who scored 28 runs.

Speaking exclusively after the match, skipper Sumeet said ‘the boys played well and this victory is a statement to them’. Even after repeated questioning, he did not elaborate what he meant by ‘statement to them’. Well, one could only guess but never the less a great performance all round.

Cricket Titans are Back with a Bang!!

After a long gap, Cricket Titans were back on field to play a friendly match against the McCormick Cricket Club, also know as the MC Club. The new look Titans were back to their vintage best as they inflicted a crushing defeat to the MC Club.

CT won the toss and elected to bat first in this 15 over match, however the team members were puzzled by by captain’s decision to play a 15 over match, when the history suggests that Titans are at their best in a 20 over game.

The start of Titans was not good as Nitin and Rahul, who came after Nitin’s wicket were out without troubling the scorers. Rishi joined Amit, who is now the permanent opening batsman for Titans to provide a solid foundation to the team. Amit was dismissed in 6th over for a well made 26 off 17 balls. Ruchir came in next but didn’t last long as he was cought out for 1. Rishi was going great guns till he got out for a well made 32 off 22 balls. It appeared that Titans might struggle after loosing their key batsmen but Sanjeev and Shahbaz had different ideas as they toyed with MC Club blowers. Both scored 46 each, before they go out in the final overs. Titans made a challenging 162/8 in the allotted 15 overs.

MC Club looked nervous right from the start and captain Rahul took this opportunity to gamble with Himanshu for opening the bowling for Titan’s. Once considered a perfect all-rounder, Himanshu had lost his place in the team due to a series of disastrous performances and instead of playing, he has been relegated to the job of paying (dues & bill) for the club. Captain Rahul changed his strategy completely in this game which was evident for the fact that he used four different bowlers for first four overs. The result was that MC Club lost wickets in regular intervals. The only batsman that looked to threaten the Titan’s was Gaurav who made a nice half century but was out in the 11th due to some nice bowling by Ruchir. The rest of the bowlers Shahbaz, Sanjeev and Gulshan did a great job by restricting MC Club to 140.

Rishi was declared man of the match for with batting as well as fielding. Rishi took 2 great catches in the deep that turned the tide in Titan’s favor.

Speaking after the match captain Rahul looked relaxed and said – ‘the boys played well’.

Match update – October 10:
Cricket Titans (CT) & McCormick Cricket Club (MC Club) ends in a tie

The memories of India Sri Lanka semi-final in Kolkata for the 1996 Cricket World Cup were relived in sector 46 ground today, the only difference being that instead of spectators it was the players who got into altercation and left the match without result!

McCormick Cricket (MC) Club won the toss and invited Cricket Titans to bat in a 20 over match. CT got to a disastrous start with Amit watching the fall of Sudhanshu and Ruchir’s wicket in the first over on well directed short pitch deliveries. Amit and Anshul tried to stabilize the innings but Anshul was out in the fourth over with the score on 25. Rishi joined Amit and both looked set for solid partnership. However, the partnership was first rocked by a confident caught behind appeal for Rishi. Everyone on the field except Rahul – the umpire is said to have heard the sound. Frantic protest from CT players could not move Rahul who decided in favour of the batsman. Interestingly, Amit who was on the non-striker end chose to remain silent on this incident maybe due to BCCI’s gag order.

Rishi could not survive long and was eventually bowled. Amit on the other hand was fighting a lone battle, as the subsequent partnerships with Sanjeev and Abhisek were also short-lived. He was eventually dismissed in 18th over after scoring a brilliant 68. Sandeep, Ninad and Rahul too could score much but a superb 8 ball - 24 run cameo from Gulshan propelled CT’s to a par 152 in 20 overs.

Sanjeev and Ruchir started well with the ball and MC Club loss two important wickets in the first four overs. However, CT leaked a lot a runs in middle over and even through the MC Club lost wickets they still scored at a brisk pace. MC Club was 92 /5 in 11th over, when the players went for drinks.

There were numerous alternations between on field players from both sides and umpires. MC Club were 138/8 when the play for bought to a halt. CT players insisted that they had bowled 18 overs while MC Club said that only 17 overs were bowled. Tempers started to rise as verbally volleys started flying thick and fast with players from both sides accusing each other of bad sportsmanship. It was revealed that the scorers of MC Club were only marking runs while other important aspects like overs, balls etc were not counted by them on the score sheet and therefore, MC Club could not substantiate its claim. On the other side, CT players never corrected MC Club on the total number of overs till 17th/18th over was to be bowled. After heated exchange, both the teams left the ground without completing the match and players from MC Club repeatedly referring to Rahul’s umpiring decision as a bad precedent for the match.

Speaking after the match, caption Rahul said that he did not hear any caught behind sound or saw any deviation in the trajectory of the ball. However, he was heard saying that ‘the boys played well’, but maybe the ‘well’ was not enough, atleast today.

A sad end to what could have been a great match.

--- by Mastram

Another professional performance by Cricket Titans
Symphony again had to suffer ignominy of defeat

Symphony won the toss and decided to bat first. Again they had a horrid start as their opening batsman flicked the third ball of the match in the hands of short mid wicket. Dev and Anupam bowled some tight overs and kept the score under control. Anshul and Rahul continued to build pressure and very quickly Symphony were reduced to 71/5 in 10 overs. Cricket Titans were short of 1-2 bowlers and rest of the Symphony batsmen made good use of it. At one point they were 160/7 in 15 overs and threatened to reach 180 in designated 17 overs. However Anshul and Raj bowled some tight overs to restrict them to 170. Rahul was most successful bowler with 3 wickets.
Amit and Ninad opened the batting and made a solid start. Ninad got out in 5th over. Rishi played well for his 15 and had good partnership with Amit and Dev. Amit also added 15 against his name. CT lost 3 wickets for around 50 runs and that's when Anshul joined Dev in the middle. Dev was in complete belligerent mode and started with a first ball 6. They both made good use of some benign bowling by Symphony and scored freely on both sides of wickets. Symphony was also culprit of dropping couple of catches which eventually led to a huge partnership. Dev was particularly severe in 11th and 12th over where duo plundered 45 runs in 2 overs. Dev was out for 54 but he had already taken CT to safety. Sumit, Jassi and Anshul finished the match with 8 balls to spare
Dev was awarded man of the match for 54 runs, 2 wickets and 2 outstanding catches.

Speaking after the match captain Rahul said 'the boys played well'

Match update - September 27:

Cricket Titans (CT) beat McCormick Cricket Club (MC Club) by 6 wkts

Summary:
The 20 over match started when Rahul – captain of CT, won the toss and for change elected to field. Sanjeev and Aakash, the opening blowing pair of CT bowled with pace in vigor as MC Club found going tough and lost their first wicket when Nitin took a great catch at first slip off Sanjeev’s first over.

The double G’s of MC Club; Gagan and Gaurav got together and provided much needed partnership but were aided by some poor catching by CT’s. Over half a dozen catches were spilled by CT in next 6 overs and it was not the only the usual suspects like Abhishek, Rahul, Rishi who were dropping catches but Himanshu; one the safest catcher in CT– dropped a couple of sitters.

Huge drama unfolded at the start of the 6th over when the umpire gave Sudhanshu’s second ball – wide. This was Sudhanshu’s second over and since morning he was struggling to find his rhythm, Sudhanshu contested umpire’s decision but to his surprise, his own wicket keeper – Amit, supported umpire’s decision, fierce altercation broke out in the middle with Sudhanshu accusing Amit of not supporting his team, while Amit was heard saying that he was only supporting the truth and that the ball was a definitely a wide. CT team members rushed to pacify both the players, MC Club members were shocked to this drama on field.

In the hindsight, it appears that the altercation is not only about this match; infact it raises the fundamental question of our modern lives. On one side, there is this ever growing modern corporate culture of competitiveness, which wants to win at any cost, either by hook or crook. On the other side is the traditional Indian system of value and culture which wants to follow the right path rather than the outcome and reminds us of the story Mahabharta wherein Lord Krishna said to Arjun that he should concrete on doing right things and not worry about the end result.

Anyways, the incident fired everyone in the team, Sudhanshu somehow got his rhythm back and bowled unplayable deliveries. While one over of Himanshu was expensive, Anshul & Anupam bowled with good line and length and did not let MC Club get away to a huge total. The fielding also improved as CT’s caught some breathtaking catches and bowled out MC Club for a modest 139.

The trusted opening pair of Amit and Abhishek started CT’s batting in fine form scoring 35 runs in 4 overs. The pair could not continue for long and was replaced by Rishi and Nitin who batted sensibly and did not let the required run rate go beyond 7 runs per over. Anshul replaced Nitin and and did the right thins of proving Rishi, most of the strike. Rishi batted like a man on a mission, he not only scored his trade mark boundaries but also judged and remarkable single, Rishi went on to score 57 runs in 43 balls and was declared the man of the match. Sanjeev joined Anshul and together they cruised passed the required total in 17th over of the match.

While the CT’s captain Rahul did not bowl or bat and though he may have dropped a catch, but he did marshal his troupes and was spot on with his field placing and blowing changes. Speaking after the match, captain Rahul said 'the boys played well'.

--- by Mastram

Cricket Titans handed crushing defeat to Symphony team

It was a sunny day but wet ground. Pitch was likely to bounce and outfield was again expected to be slow in morning. Symphony won the toss again and decided to make use of the conditions by bowling first. Abhishek and Sanjeev opened the inning. They made solid start and scored 35 runs in 4 overs. Abhishek got out first but scored handy 19 on 12 balls.. All top order batsmen played well but star of the day was Anshul for his 52 on 31 balls. Team batted sensibly and scored 155 in scheduled 17 overs. Ranjeet and Karan was pick of the bowlers though Sudeepto was most successful with 2 overs. Sandeep was most expensive and conceded 45 runs in 3 overs.

Sanjeev opened the bowling for cricket titans. Symphony had a terrible start by loosing wicket on very first ball. Soon they were reduced to 5/4 in 4 overs. Ranjeet showed some resistance with bat by scoring 23 runs but wickets kept on falling at regular interval. Eventually Symphony resistance ended by scoring 72 all out in 11 overs. Nitin again took 2 wickets. Almost got a hat trick but for a dropped chance. Fielding was otherwise flawless from Titans and caught every thing in air. Nitin Kumar also claimed 2 catches behind the stump. Ruchir also claimed 2 catches.
Anshul was awarded as man of the match for his 52 runs. He was cautious to start with but changed the gear as match progressed.

Match summary 12 Sep 2015
Product X vs Implementation X
Gulshan won the toss for implementation X and decided to bowl first, though he took long time to decide but it appeared a right decision as there was lot of water on ground..
Anshul opened the bowling and immediately justified captain' decision to bowl. Abhishek pulled the first ball he faced. As everyone was applauding the shot wicketkeeper realised that stumps were broken.. History was written and we had first hit wicket in the history of cricket titan. Rishi came at number 3. He was clearly distracted by all pre match chest thumping.. Could only score 5 before getting caught in usual fashion.
Sudhanshu and Nitin also got out in quick succession. Product was looking in deep trouble.
Thats when Ruchir and Aakash took control. Ruchir smashed bowlers in all part of ground and made 86 not out. Aakash also scored beautiful 4s ans 6s. He ended up just 2 run shy of half century mark.
Ruchir scored 7 sixes and 8 fours while Aakash hit 4 sixes and 5 fours
Eventually Product team ended with 182 runs in 15 overs
Also worth mentioning the heroics of surprise bowler Ranjeet who bowled his heart out. Though he didn't get any wicket but he was best bowler by miles. Anshul ended up as most successful bowler with 3 wickets on his name.

Implementation team started the difficult chase and kept losing the wickets at regular interval. Nitin was surprise package for product team . He bowled with lot of guile and took 3 wickets in one over. Implementation team got out for 96 runs and completely out in 10 overs itself. Ranjeet top scored with 34 runs.
Sanjeev (2) , karan(2), rahul(1), Aakash (1) were other successful bowlers for product team.
Ruchir was awarded as man of the match for his brilliant 86*.

--- by Mastram

Match updates - September 05

Match 1:
The implementation team was bowled out for a paltry 69 runs in 13 overs with Satya top scoring with 25 runs for the team. The next highest scorer was the extras column for the implementation team as the new look Product Team that was led for Sudhanshu, as Rahul was missing came out with a purpose. The batsmen of the implementation danced to the pace blowing of Product Team which was spearheaded by Sanjeev. Had is not been for Satya valiant effort, the implementation would have been grounded for less than 30 runs in a 20 over match.
The 69 runs target was chased down for the Product Team in less than 7 overs and that too by losing only 1 wickets. The opening partnership of Amit and Abhishek, no not the Bachchan’s, made their intentions clear by scoring 32 runs in first 2 overs. Rishi, who came in for Abhishek continued and momentum and the team won the math in only 7th over of the game.

Match 2:
As the match finished rather quickly, the players decided to play another 10 over game. Rahul came in for the second match but had to face a fierce revolt from the Product Team who did not want to break the rhythm and the spirit of the new look team and hence was forced to play for the Implementation Team in any case the implementation team was short of one player.
Batting first, the Implementation Team was bowled out for a competitive 105 runs in the 10th over, again hanks to some excellent fielding by the Product Team. Going by the same team strategy, Amit and Abhishek, again not the Bachchan’s gave a rocking start by scoring 35 runs in first 2 overs. Rishi once again came in for Abhishek and together with Amit, went hammer and tong against the Implementation Team blowers, which included Rahul. The match once gain finished in the 7th over.

Speaking after the match, the stand in skipper Sudhanshu said ‘team composition is very important and today we got it right’. On asked about the prospect of Rahul coming back to lead the team – he offered no comments.

Implementation Team captain Sumeet said ‘the boys tried well but today we were against a totally different Product’. On asked about the decision to include Rahul in his team for the second match – he offered no comments.

The entire CT team wishes a very happy birthday to dada - Sourav Ganguly

Match update - July 05

Team Rahul defeated Team Himanshu in both the matches.

The day started badly with only 7 players turning up for today match but thanks to Sanjeev, who bought in 3 of his friends and made up for a 5 member team match.

In the first match, team Rahul scored 84 runs in 10 over with captain Rahul leading from the front and scoring a fine 39 runs with 3 massive sixes. Team Himansu was bowled out for 45 runs as Rahul was again the star for the team and picked up 3 crucial wickets. Only Amit and Abhishek provided some contribution with the bat for team Himanshu,

In the second match Team Himanshu got out for a mere 45 runs in 7 overs. Team Rahul went on to score the required runs in mere 5 overs and only losing 2 wickets.

Speaking after the match, captain Rahul said 'the boys played well'. Captain Himanshu offered no comments on his sides and more importantly, his own dismal performance.

This was welcome change for Rahul who had been struggling with bat and bowl for last 2 months and questions were being raised about his presence in the team. Today's performance would go a long way in silencing his critics and would help stabilizing his position in the team.

--- by Mastram