A special night for skipper Phangiso

It was a special night at the Wanderers for Lions captain Aaron Phangiso as he cut through the Knights batting line-up to lead his team to an 87-run victory and become his franchise’s leading wicket-taker in the 50-over day/ night competition.

Left-arm spinner Phangiso brought himself on to bowl in the 17th over, with the Knights flying on 91 for one in pursuit of 276 for victory, and removed two of the Knights batting kingpins.

Proteas hopeful Keegan Petersen (13) was bowled trying to cut an arm ball and Phangiso then bowled prolific youngster Raynard van Tonder’s first ball with another quicker delivery that went straight on with the arm.

Phangiso then strangled the middle-order to finish his opening spell with figures of two for 29 in eight overs, before returning to claim the last two wickets, again in his first over, to finish with four for 30. He also went to 71 wickets for the Lions in the Momentum One-Day Cup, taking him past the previous record of 69 set by fast bowler Hardus Viljoen.

Some great hitting by opener

Jacques Snyman (54 off 34 balls) had earlier given the Knights innings a great start, but even though fellow opener Andries Gous scored 66, the rest of the Knights batsmen struggled to break the shackles imposed by spinners Phangiso and Bjorn Fortuin (10-2-34-2). With the required run-rate climbing steeply, batsmen tried to hit out and leftarm seamer Beuran Hendricks claimed three wickets.

Phangiso had also had fun with the bat as he mowed three fours and a six from the eight balls he faced, his 21 runs lifting the Lions to 275 for nine in their 50 overs.