Knights' batsman Obus Pienaar slashed a boundary off his first ball on Friday morning to bring up his maiden double-century against the Titans in their four-day SuperSport Series match at Willowmoore Park on Friday.
Coming off 177 balls in 239 minutes (32 fours and four sixes) his double-ton is the quickest on record since the franchise era began.
Although Graeme Smith made the highest score (217) this season, his 200 coming off 212 balls, and JP Duminy scored a 200 off 201
balls, Pienaar's double-ton is the quickest in South African domestic cricket since the number of balls faced by the batsmen became a recognised statistic.
While Pienaar's teammate Rilee Rossouw scored a double-century last season off 198 balls, the fastest double-century on record in South African domestic cricket, time-wise, was scored by Xenophon Balaskas. He reached 206 in 184 minutes for Griqualand West against Rhodesia in Kimberley 1929/30 but, unfortunately, there is no record of the number of balls he faced.
Denis Compton scored a triple-hundred in an unbelievable 181
minutes at this same ground in Benoni when he represented MCC against Northern Transvaal in 1948/49.
The Knights resumed their innings on 353/3, with Pienaar on 199
overnight and Ryan McLaren on 17.
They added another 24 runs before Ethy Mbhalati finally got rid of Pienaar, who edged the ball to Pierre Joubert at slip. His 212
came off 184 balls (34x4, 4x6) after he had been dropped four times on Thursday on 9, 75, 102 and 126.
McLaren (Ryan) was bowled by GC Viljoen for 44 and the Knights were all out for 470 half-an-hour before lunch.
In reply, the Titans found themselves one down with only four runs on the board.
Pieter Malan edged Dillon du Preez to Dean Elgar at third slip, after facing five balls for his duck.
Pierre Joubert (12) did not fare much, caught behind by Adrian McLaren, also off the bowling of Du Preez.
Rudolph held up his end and shared an 85-run, third-wicket stand with Farhaan Behardien (37) before the latter played a delivery from Gino Vries onto his stumps, and a 52-run partnership with Henry Davids (15) who was given out lbw to Charl Pietersen.
Rilee Rossouw took a low catch at first slip to dismiss Heino Kuhn for 12, giving Du Preez his third scalp.
At stumps, the Titans were 197/5 (after 66 overs) with Jacques Rudolph on exactly 100 not out. He remains the leading run scorer in the 2010/11 SuperSport Series and is the first batsman to break through the 800 barrier this season. It is his fourth century this season and the 42nd of his career.
The Titans went into this match only a fraction of a point behind the Cobras and they will rue the seven dropped catches on Thursday which restricted them to only three of a possible four bonus points in the field.
With the Cobras all out for 285 against the Warriors, they gained 7.70 bonus points from their final match in Paarl. For the Titans to win the championship, they need to reach 342 runs within the 100 over limit -which leaves them with a balance of 145 to get in the remaining 34 overs (at a required run rate of 4.26 per over). -
Sapa