There is one match left in this year’s Ram Slam T20 and it is the final everyone wanted between the two best sides in the competition so the tournament should be set for a thrilling finale.
The Titans were the winners of the group phase of the competition which means they are at home in this final. They take on the Dolphins who came through a thrilling semi-final by the skin of their teeth to set up this mouth-watering contest.
These two sides have faced off twice in the tournament already and they each have one win to their name. It must be said that the Titans’ win was far more emphatic than the Dolphins one and came more recently so as well as home advantage the pre-tournament favourites have that on their side too.
The Titans have been comfortably the best side in the competition and they will be looking to make sure they have one last decent performance in them to secure a well deserved title.
It remains to be seen if they will have the likes of AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis, Morne Morkel and Dean Elgar back for this final but if they do then they are going to look extremely strong on paper.
The Dolphins will still be wondering how they made it past the Cape Cobras in the semi-final. At one stage the Cobras needed less than a run a ball but they choked and the Dolphins live to tell the tale.
Interestingly their bowlers stood up and delivered in that match and they hadn’t really done that prior to then so if they deliver at the death again the Dolphins could yet walk off with the title given the power they have in their batting line up.
The Titans go into this match as comfortable favourites and I think on what we’ve seen over the entire course of the competition that is entirely justified. I’m already on them to win this match from my pre-tournament bet before a ball was bowled in the tournament and I’m not going to sway from that now.
I will have a bet on the final though and it comes in the form of the highest first six overs market. Prior to their struggles early on against the Knights last time out in what must be said was a complete dead rubber devoid of any competitiveness, the Titans had led in five of their previous six matches after six overs.
What I like about them is how they lose few wickets. In fact prior to Sunday they had only lost one wicket in their previous five powerplays and with the form Quinton de Kock is in I would expect another fast start.
We saw in the semi-final on Wednesday that you can get stuck into this Dolphins attack early but we’ve never really seen the Titans attack go round the park and with the likes of Chris Morris, Albie Morkel and David Wiese on show there’s nothing to suggest they’re going to start now.
In their last five group matches the Dolphins put up six over scores of 22/4 and 22/3 so there is a real danger that they could fall into trouble early on so the 10/11 on the Titans leading through six overs looks the way to play this final.
Back Titans Highest 1st 6 overs for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Bet365
Blog cricket YTD: +14.6pts
