Titans 123 (Henry Davids 39, Heino Kuhn 31, Matthew Gale 4-10) beat Brisbane Heat 119 (James Hopes 37, Daniel Christian 21, Marchant de Lange 3-13, Rowan Richards 2-20) by four runs.

The 6^th match of the CLT20 ended as a nail biter as Titans defended a lower score against Brisbane Heat on a day when bowlers from either sides ruled the game.

Titans were bowled out for 123 runs in 18.5 overs and Brisbane Heat was restricted to 119 in the allocated 20 overs.

Marchant de Lange (Titans) was declared ‘Player of the match’ for his match winning bowling spell of 3-13.

The sixth match of the Champions, Group B, was played on Tuesday, September 24, 2013, at Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh.

Earlier, the captain of Brisbane Heat, James Hope, won the toss and preferred to bowl first. The decision paid off when Titans lost their first wicket at one as their skipper, Henry Davids, and Heino Kuhn got off with their business by hitting 5 fours until the end of the fifth over. They added 16 runs in the next one with 1 six and a couple of fours and took the score to 70 in 9.4 overs when Kuhn was gone for 31 off 27 balls with 6 fours. Davids followed him five runs later for 39 off 31 with 1 six and 5 fours.

AB de Villiers walked in next and accumulated 13 runs in the 12^th over with 2 fours whereas Titans went down with another wicket at 90. He was run out for 28 off 19 with 4 fours as the rival bowlers got full command of the situation. They grabbed last five wickets for just 16 runs and the innings of the entire Titans team was folded back at 123 with seven balls still remaining.

Matthew Gale was the star performer with four wickets, Daniel Christian got two whereas Ben Cutting and Nathan Hauritz held one wicket each.

James Hopes witnessed the downfall of the top order batsmen of his team at the other end. He scored 15 runs in five overs when Brisbane Heat was struggling at 24 as Daniel Christian joined him at the crease. They were unable to register any boundary in three overs and Hopes hit the first six of the innings in the 10^th over. The duo crept to 68 in 13.1 overs as Christian was clean bowled by Rowan Richards for 21.

Chris Lynn appeared in the center next and tasted his first boundary in the 15^th one. James Hope was finally caught by AB de Villiers off Roelof van der Merwe for 37 from 43 balls with 4 fours while his team required another 40 runs from the last 23 deliveries. Lynn left the scene after scoring 14 and Chris Sabburg was the only other batsman who entered the double figures. The equation was displayed on the screen as 10 runs in the final over with three wickets available when two batsmen ran themselves out on the first two deliveries.  The timber of the last batsman was destroyed on the final delivery as Brisbane Heat managed 119 runs in 20 overs.

Marchant de Lange was the highest wicket taker with three, Rowan Richards secured two whereas Roelof van der Merwe, Morne Morkel and David Wiese shared one wicket each.

Titans won an interesting encounter vs. Brisbane Heat by a narrow margin of four runs and earned four points.

Team Standings in Group B

Trinidad and Tobago

Match 1 – won 1 – points 4 – net run rate +1.250

Chennai Super Kings

Match 1 – won1 – points 4 – net run rate +0.679

Titans

Matches 2 – won 1 – lost 1 – points 4 – net run rate -0.180

Brisbane Heat

Matches 2 – lost 2 – points 0 – net run rate -0.725