Piedt leads from the front as Cobras crush Lions

DAY 3 OF 4 BIZHUB HIGHVELD LIONS 104 AND 354 WSB CAPE COBRAS 529 Cobras won by an innings and 71 runs

IT TOOK them until the final hour on the penultimate day of this FourDay Series match, but the Cobras got the reward their impressive performance deserved yesterday.

Led by a sterling effort by captain Dane Piedt, playing his 100th first class match, the Cape side claimed a dominant win that gives them early control of the competition.

Nursing a big bruise on his bowling hand, Piedt finished the Lions’ second innings with figures of 435-118-7, 42 of those overs delivered yesterday.

“I cannot ask for a better performance from my team... bowling a team out for 104 and then completely dominating them with the bat,” said Piedt.

This was an outstanding display from the Cobras, who were missing veteran seamers Rory Kleinveldt and Dane Paterson. Piedt admitted he was concerned how their absence might affect a young bowling unit, but he needn’t have worried.

They were given a big helping hand by the Lions on the first morning, with the home team’s stand-in captain Omphile Ramela bemoaning a number of “soft dismissals” in the first innings.

With a monumental lead courtesy of a mature but flowing batting effort, they were given more than enough wiggle room to attack the Lions in the second innings.

The highlight of the Cobras’ innings was the 178-run third wicket partnership between Janneman Malan, who scored 137, and David Bedingham (102). “We want to give these young guys the best opportunity possible to express themselves,” said Piedt. “Our batting line-up, it excites me. Look at how they played here; they didn’t bat at 2.5 or 2.7 (runs) an over, they really took it the Lions who have some experienced bowlers in their attack.”

As for his own performance yesterday, which came after a well made 57 with the bat, Piedt said he drew inspiration from further afield.

“I sat in my room last night watching the Test in Dubai (between Pakistan and Australia), and thought to myself, ‘that’s what I have to do, rotate at one end’, and that ensured the young guys weren’t bowled into the ground. It’s my second ‘five-fer’ at the Wanderers. It was a weird kind of pitch, quite dry, and it actually favoured me. I sensed blood and took the opportunity.”

The Lions never recovered from that first morning when errors saw them reduced to 84/8 at lunch. But there were some positives to be drawn from the second innings: Stephen Cook backed up his century last week with another one here of 103, while Wihan Lubbe (81) and Nicky van den Bergh (73), sought to atone for their first innings mistakes.