Dominant Dolphins wrap up historic 4-Day title

With day one and two heavily influenced by rain, the Dolphins relied on their spin duo of Prenelan Subrayen and Senuran Muthusamy to get them in the match when the pair ripped through the Titans batting order dismissing them for the joint lowest first class score at Kingsmead, 53.

Day five saw the Titans resume on 94 for four with still 150 runs sitting between them and the Dolphins batting for a second time.

The spinners continued where they had left off on the final morning but it was Muthusamy who took the lead on the final morning.

The left-arm orthodox spinner took the wickets of captain Grant Thomson, Neil Brand and Dayyaan Galiem on the morning of the final day to take him to his sixth five wicket haul for the Dolphins.

Subrayen then came to the party to bag the wicket of Kyle Simmonds which handed him his third wicket and then the wicket of Thando Ntini, smartly caught by Keegan Petersen at short-leg, saw the off-spinner pick up his maiden first class ten-wicket haul.

The resilient Rivaldo Moonsamy was the final wicket to fall when he was caught in the deep by Ruan de Swardt off Muthusamy for 41 and the Titans were bowled out for 166.

Muthusamy ended with six for 79 and Subrayen took four for 56 in the second innings to give the Dolphins an emphatic innings and 76 run win.

In the end Subrayen was awarded the man of the match award for his match figures of ten for 80 in 60 overs.

For the Dolphins and captain Marques Ackerman there was a lot more to winning this trophy than just the cricket played this season.

“It’s been a great journey for the Dolphins and what a great way to finish off the franchise era,” Ackerman said. “The ground staff, the people in the offices winning the awards for administration means that the players are looked after well.

“And that has led to a great season and to win the trophy outright in such a convincing way really caps it off!

“Every single person here deserves the credit for this trophy and this win!”

The Dolphins side has competed consistently at the top of the limited overs game but might have laboured slightly in four day cricket. The side made a conscious decision to change this and this was the result of that mind-set shift.

“We knew we had the talent and the right group of players to win games but it was one thing saying that.

“I was given the responsibility to make the change and we sat down with the coaches and decided what needed to change.

“We created a team song and then created a winning culture, we had that in white ball cricket, but we needed to bring that into our red ball side."

“A lot of hard work went into it and this is a result of that,” Ackerman added.

The 4-Day title joins gives them a second title of the season after they shared the Momentum One Day Cup with the Imperial Lions.

SUMMARY OF SCORE

1st Innings
Hollywoodbets Dolphins 295 all out (S Erwee 100 M Ackerman 74)
Momentum Multiply Titans 53 all out (P Subrayen 6/24 S Muthusamy 3/12)

2nd Innings
Momentum Multiply Titans 166 all out (S Muthumsamy 6/79 P Subrayen 4/56)

 Hollywoodbets Dolphins win by an innings and 76 runs.