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Boucher pleased to see Titans rewarded for effort

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Mark Boucher (Gallo Images)
Mark Boucher (Gallo Images)

Cape Town - Titans coach Mark Boucher is pleased that their solid first half of the Sunfoil Series season was finally rewarded with a victory in the final game - one that gave them outright leadership at the top of the log.

The Pretoria-based franchise overcame the Highveld Lions in their round five encounter last week for their maiden win of the campaign.

In fact, it was the only win by any side in the competition to date, with the 14 other games all producing draws.

"The wicket played its part and I felt it was a good cricket wicket, good for bowling and if you knuckled down and did some hard graft, you could get some good runs as well," Boucher said.

"So I'm very pleased we got the result, especially after all the hard work we put in during the first half of the season. It's nice to get a reward out of it all."

The Titans' had played the Lions, the Dolphins twice and the Warriors in the previous four rounds.

They are also the franchise that had to use the most number of players in the opening part of the season.

A total of 21 were used, mainly due to injuries, but also because of national call-ups.

"We were forced into changes because of various reasons, there were injuries and then national call-ups, so it wasn't ideal," Boucher explained.

"But as it happens, opportunities were presented to others and for us there were openings for guys like Corbin Bosch and Migael Pretorius, so those guys stepped in and came through with flying colours.

"So I'm pleased with the depth and hopefully we can get more settled in the future."

The Titans have amassed 79.68 points so far, over 10 ahead of the Knights (68.70). But the competition is extremely tight with the bottom-placed Lions on 56.38 points.

Boucher is predicting a much more exciting second half of the season.

"I think once the competition starts to break up a bit with some wins then you'll start to see riskier cricket being played because there’s so many points for a win," he added.

"So we can expect things to be more exciting in the second-half, there'll be more rolling of the dice if you want to call it that.

"I've got a feeling that things will start opening up in the next part of the season."

The Titans focus now shifts to the shortest format, with the T20 Challenge scheduled to begin next Friday, November 10.

The Titans play the Lions again in the opening round.

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