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BACK WITH A BANG . . . Khama Billiat was the toast of the night as Mamelodi Sundowns beat Bidvest Wits

Sports Reporter
TALENTED Zimbabwe forward Khama Billiat ended months of drought when he bounced back to scoring form with a brace that inspired Mamelodi Sundowns to victory over champions Bidvest Wits in an ABSA Premiership tie on Tuesday night. Billiat has had a season that has so far been blighted by both injuries and protracted contract talks.

But with the dust having seemingly settled now and Billiat more focussed on helping the Brazilians to try and wrestle the 2017-18 championship, the Warriors star forward was back in the squad for the tough fixture against Wits. The former Ajax Cape Town man however, had to contend with a start from the bench and when he was introduced he once showed his class with the goals that gave Sundowns a 2-0 triumph.

Such was his impact on the game that despite having to rise from the bench in the 57th minute, Billiat was still deservedly named Man of the Match but the Zimbabwean international maintained that credit must go to his coach Pitso Mosimane and the team.

“Starting as a substitute meant I heard all the instructions of our coach. This meant that I knew how he wanted me to operate when I came on and my teammates gave me the opportunities to win the match,’’ Billiat said.

Sundowns are having to play catch up in the ABSA Premiership and they have three games in hand over pacesetters Baroka who also have a Zimbabwean on their books — former FC Platinum winger Talent Chipunza. More importantly for Mosimane and his men, they are now fourth and just three points behind Baroka.

Sundowns would not doubt welcome Billiat’s rejuvenation as it gives them more attacking dimensions with the player on the other hand emphasising team effort.

“Credit must go to the team. We fought hard and we didn’t concede. The coach always says if we don’t concede we stand a chance of winning the match. Everyone is working hard. This is good for the team,’’ Billiat said.

Referring to his instruction into the game on Tuesday night, Billiat said that he did nothing special and just listened to the instructions of the coach.

“When you are sitting on the bench, you always listen to the coach when he is giving the instruction to the players playing so that when you go in you don’t make the same mistakes. We apply what the coach says,” explained Billiat.

With the South African top-flight programme still to reach the halfway mark it is still early days to see who is posing the biggest challenge on the championship race. But Kaitano Tembo’s SuperSport United appear to be one of the teams that will have a huge say in the title race.

The Pretoria outfit might be in 11th place on the 16-team table and that is largely due to a congested fixture programme that was necessitated by their fine run in the Confederation Cup in which they have reached the final.

SuperSport United, trailing 2-1 from the first leg will host DRC’s TP Mazembe at Lucas Moripe stadium on Saturday night in the return leg of the Confederation Cup final before they can resume league duties.

That they are just eight points behind leaders Baroka who have played six games more will no doubt give Tembo and his boss Eric Tinkler that their team which also has the Zimbabwean playing trio of Onismor Bhasera, Prince Dube and Kingston Nkhatha, will use the matches they have in hand to climb up the ladder.