The Brisbane Heat failed to impress with the bat yet again, as the Titans scored a vital four-run win over the Australian side in the Champions League T20 on Tuesday.
A monumental collapse from the Titans - after the start of the match was delayed by 45 minutes due to rain -- from 70 for one to 123 all out, seemed to set the Brisbane Heat on their way to a comfortable win in Mohali, but their batsmen failed to come to the party again.
The Heat were bowled out for the second consecutive match in the CLT20, this time for 119, as the Titans picked up all four points.
It wasn't the best of starts for the Heat, who were all out for 110 in their first match, losing three wickets in little time and with it making the relatively small total look a lot bigger.
Joe Burns was the first to leave, top-edging one off the first ball of Rowan Richards (two for 20) with Marchant De Lange completing the catch.
James Hopes and Peter Forrest looked to take it to the Titans bowlers, taking a couple of boundaries each, before Forrest and Cutting fell in the space of just three balls to De Lange (three for 13), leaving the Brisbane Heat on a precarious 24 for three.
The experienced Hopes and Daniel Christian settled the innings down for the Aussies, allying for 44 in 8.2 overs. However, with the run rate hovering just above the five mark, the required rate climbed up to well above eight.
That meant some big strokes were necessary, leading to Christian's downfall in the 14th over, leaving Hopes (37, 44b, 4x4) to pull his side through.
The Aussie international though just could not produce that innings, holing out to A.B. De Villiers off Roelof Van Der Merwe, leaving the Heat needing 40 from 23 balls with five wickets in hand.
The match seemed lost for the Heat, but a couple of lofty hits and a few edges here and there and soon enough, it was just 20 from the last two overs.
Morne Morkel picked up a wicket - of Chris Hartley -- in the first ball of the penultimate over, but also conceded ten runs, leaving the Heat needing 10 from the last over.
A run out in the first ball from De Lange, of Chris Sabburg, who was the catalyst with a seven-ball 19, was a big blow for the Heat, leaving them needing nine runs from five balls with two new batsmen at the crease.
Another run out off the next ball and De Lange did the rest, finishing things off with a yorker, as the Titans picked up their first win of the CLT20.
The Titans lost their way after a strong start, with the wickets of A.B. De Viliiers and Henry Davids.
Jacques Rudolph, one of the more experienced batsmen in the Titans side, fell early for just one, slicing one to Sabburg at cover off Matthew Gale (four for 10).
Heino Kuhn came in at No.3 and the right-handed batsman put together a strong partnership with the excellent Henry Davids.
The duo allied for 69 runs in just 8.2 overs and set the Titans on course for a big total. Once Kuhn (31, 27b, 6x4) fell to Ben Cutting in the tenth over, it should have begun the final assault for the Titans with De Villiers strutting to the crease.
However, Henry was dismissed soon after for a bright 39 (31b, 5x4, 1x6) leaving De Villiers with unsettled batsmen at the other end.
That eventually proved to be the Titans' downfall as Roelof Van Der Merwe, for a duck, and then De Villiers (28, 19b, 4x4), unable to cope on his own, also fell in quick succession.
The next six scores from the Titans batsmen - 9, 5, 6, 0, 0, 0 - pretty much summed up the rest of the innings, with the Titans going from 90 for three in the 13th over to 123 all out in the blink of an eye.
However, the Heat did them a huge favour with a poor batting performance of their own.
