Records all round for Titans and Eagles

Several domestic records were in the offing on a lively first day of the four-day Supersport Series match between the Northerns Titans and the Free State Eagles at Supersport Park on Friday.

Sent in to bat, the Titans finished the day on 291 all out. But there were a host of personal triumphs within both teams.

Free State fast bowler Victor Mpitsang took a personal first-class best of five wickets in the innings. Mpitsang finished the day with figures of 5-64 in his 18 overs, eclipsing his previous first-class best of 4-37 against Western Province in the 1998/99 season.

But the Titans had a magnificent eighth-wicket partnership of 121 runs between wicketkeeper Kruger van Wyk and spin bowler Nigel Brouwers to thank for enabling them to end a once shaky innings with a respectable total.

The diminutive Van Wyk surged past his previous first-class best of 20. The stand ended when Brouwers was dismissed for 59, and Van Wyk went four balls later for the same score.

The Titans started the match as slight favourites, playing at their home ground and having not lost a game this season. But their comprehensive 153-run victory over the Griqua Diamonds, and their 139-run triumph over the Highveld Strikers counted for nothing against the pace of Mpitsang.

The home team were in disarray on 42 for two after only 13 overs. Opener Rudi Steyn top-scored with his 66 runs off 104 balls, including 11 fours and one six. Steyn steered Northerns into the lunch break at 102 for three, with the wickets of Jacques Rudolph, Martin van Jaarsveld and Quentin Still all going cheaply.

Steyn's departure shortly after lunch increased the pressure on his captain Gerald Dros to reproduce the kind of form that saw him score his maiden first-class century against the Strikers last week.

Dros was going well on 34 off 57 balls when he became the second victim of the Mpitsang/Brophy connection, which claimed four wickets on the day. The Free State Eagles saw out the remainder of the day's play on 54 without loss.