Heino Kuhn. Picture: GALLO IMAGES/JOHAN RYNNERS
Heino Kuhn. Picture: GALLO IMAGES/JOHAN RYNNERS

HEINO Kuhn is only 56 runs short of hitting the 1,000 runs mark in the Sunfoil Series.

Given his recent form in ensuring that the Titans remain on top of the domestic four-day competition, blasting past that mark should be an easy task for the 31-year-old opening batsman.

Making it extra special is the fact that no domestic batsman has scored 1,000 runs in six seasons.

The last time it happened, three batsmen — the Knights’ Rilee Rossouw (1,189), fellow Titan Dean Elgar (1,060) and the Highveld Lions’ Stephen Cook (1,013) — did it in one season, in 2009-10.

Since then, the only other batsman to have scored more than the 944 runs Kuhn has accumulated so far was his former teammate Jacques Rudolph, who finished with 954 in the 2010-11 season.

Kuhn’s contribution is highly appreciated by the Titans, who are in the hunt for their first Sunfoil Series title since 2011-12.

"Heino just gets better every year. Just when you think you’ve seen the best from him, he comes up with something else," Titans coach Rob Walter told Business Day on Tuesday.

"He has really put in the hard yards; he puts in the time at training. It is good to see him nailing it on the field. I hope he can continue in this vein and I look forward to more good performances from him in our remaining two matches."

Kuhn, who has scored three centuries and four half-centuries, is comfortably ahead of the next best run-scorers in the competition.

The Lions, who slid to third place on the log to make way for the Knights in second, boast the top wicket-taker in the competition — Hardus Viljoen with 40 wickets, four more than Duanne Olivier of the Knights.

The remaining two rounds is certain to be a hard-fought battle between the top three.

The Titans, who have won five of their eight matches, retained their spot at the peak of the table (112.32 points) with an eight-wicket win over the winless bottom-of-the-table Warriors at the weekend.

Despite only suffering one defeat so far, the Lions, who were in second place for much of the competition, surrendered their spot to the Knights after drawing with the Dolphins. The Knights’ three-wicket win over the Cobras ensured they move to just 11.64 points adrift of the Titans.

The Lions are 5.94 points below the Knights.

One slip from any of these three sides could put a dent in their title ambitions. "It is still very tight. We are only about 11 points ahead of the Knights. It is still anybody’s title, really," Walter said.