When the Titans wrapped up a nine-wicket win over the Highveld Lions on Wednesday with an ease that went against the grain of the tightly fought Sunfoil Series clash, the drought was broken.
It took until the fifth round of the tournament for a result to be manufactured on what is called the "slope" side of the Wanderers pitch square.
It's one of the pitches on the left-hand side when bowling from the Corlett Drive End that behaves differently from the rest of the square.
When the Lions had a high-scoring draw against the Warriors in the opening round, they played on the Kent Park side of the square. That produced 1240 runs for the loss of 25 wickets.
Lions coach Geoff Toyana said the 14 draws were mainly because of the inferior quality of the Kookaburra balls used this season. "There have been plenty of issues but the main one has been with the ball.
"We haven't been using the same balls that we used last season. These balls have no seam and when they're 60-70 overs old, they still have markings and they're tough to shine.
"The pitches have also been an issue as the bat has been very dominant. It's been easy to get out of trouble in most matches after a substandard first innings.
"An example was the Knights/Cape Cobras game where the Cobras were bowled out cheaply, the Knights bossed the game yet the Cobras were able to get out of trouble with some ease. It's been boring because of those factors," Toyana, 43, added.
The 15 matches have produced 40 centuries and seven batsmen have already crossed the 400-run barrier.
The third round had the least number of hundreds (two) and the first (12) and fourth (11) rounds were torture for the bowlers.
Titans coach Mark Boucher said the new points system along with the pitches and indifferent weather in the north and east of the country have contributed to the run glut.
Winning teams get 16 points along with bonus points which are awarded as follows: One bowling bonus point at the fall of the third, fifth and ninth wickets in the first 100 overs and one batting bonus point awarded in the first innings when 150 runs are attained within 100 overs and 0.02 for each run thereafter.
"The system encourages attacking and confident cricket but because no team won in the first round, it seemed like everyone was too scared to make a big call because the other team can leapfrog ahead of them," said Boucher.
"I think we will see more exciting cricket played in the second round."
