Titans bank on batting strength

The similarities between Titans and Sydney Sixers are startling, beginning with the simple fact that they are the only two champions left in the Champions League.

Both won their respective domestic competitions and have established themselves as the powerhouses of cricket in their countries. Both have potent bowling attacks, although Sydney's has more of the future with Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazelwood while Titans' is more of a mix with CJ de Villiers in the youth corner and Alfonso Thomas adding experience.

Both have stalwart wicketkeepers in Brad Haddin and Heino Kuhn - who is hoping to challenge for national selection - and both are without some big stars. Titans reached the final without the Morkel brothers, AB de Villiers or Faf du Plessis, Sydney have had it a little less severe.

Shane Watson played in their first three matches, all of them which were Sydney victories, but was then ordered to return home. His team showed they could cope without him as they went on to win their last group stage game as well. The battle lines have been drawn on that premise: these two teams are fighters no matter what.

"You can't underestimate a side without their top stars. Titans have shown that in this competition and so have Sydney," Titans coach Matthew Maynard said, further outlining where the duel will be waged. "We know Sydney are a very strong side and bowlers are suited to these conditions, but so are our batsmen. I think that's going to be the contest that decides it."

Jacques Rudolph and Henry Davids have done the bulk of Titans' work with the willow. They have featured in two half-century opening stands and, in both circumstances, Titans scored sizeable totals and won the match. The pair accumulated runs in more traditional ways, rather than relying on improvised 20-overs methods, which Maynard said is the way the shortest format should be played.

"I don't think slogging plays a massive part in 20-overs cricket, full stop," he said. "Maybe it comes in towards the back end of an innings when people hit the ball in unusual areas. But generally, good cricket shots pay off and teams have learned that over the years. Henry and Jacques both play good cricket shots and they have done well."

But, the pair and Titans' batting as a whole fell apart against Kolkata Knight Riders, when they were dismissed for 89. It was their weakest performance in recent memory but Maynard is not reading too much into the defeat, because Knight Riders could play with absolute freedom, having already been knocked out of the tournament.

"The Knight Riders batsmen really went after our bowlers and hit our guys off their lengths. They had nothing to lose doing that, even if a couple of balls went in the air," Maynard said, maintaining that building strategies on that type of gameplan does not pay off in the long-run. "It was high-risk, high-reward kind of cricket. You can't keep playing your cricket as adventurously as Knight Riders did that day and [have it] keep coming off; there's a time where that fails."

Maynard does not expect Sydney to approach the semi-final with that attitude. "I'll be very surprised if Sydney are as carefree as Knight Riders were," he said, but acknowledged that they are the favourites. "The favourites for the final, probably from the outset, would have been Delhi and Sydney. But the two local sides are in the semi-finals as well. I don't think many people would have predicted that at the start."

The success of the South African sides has in some part been credited to their knowledge of local conditions but Maynard said there is something else Titans will be counting on come Friday. "A big crowd is what gives you the home ground advantage," he said. "The players love playing in front of a crowd, as they showed against Perth in the first game."

Marcus North, the Scorchers' captain, admitted that his side found it intimidating in front of the Centurion faithful and Maynard is hopeful they can repeat that against Sydney. "If the stadium is a third full or a quarter full, then I don't believe there is any home advantage because there isn't that atmosphere created by the supporters to make that much of a difference," he said. "But 10,000 people ... that's different."