Lions too good for the Titans

The Lions were outstanding in the field as they downed the Titans by 18 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis method, to win the Gauteng derby and move ever closer to the playoffs in the T20 Challenge at Kingsmead yesterday.

The win saw the Lions leapfrog the Titans into second place on the log, with a game in hand.

The rain which interrupted the decent Lions innings in the 17th over on 124/4 saw the Titans target adjusted to 131 in 15 overs.

But the misfiring Titans top-order were blown away by the superb Lions attack, invariably picking the wrong shots at key times.

The mixture of spin and seam saw the Titans slump to 55/6 in the ninth over and it was only the efforts of the tail – Simon Harmer (17), Junior Dala (21) and Lizaad Williams (11*) – that denied the Lions the crucial bonus point as the Titans closed on 112/8.

Left-arm seamer Beuran Hendricks was the pick of the bowlers with an outstanding 2/7 in the three overs he was allowed, while spinner Bjorn Fortuin was again brilliant with 2/21.

Kagiso Rabada was typically tough for the batsmen to get away as he took 1/18.

The Titans, by way of contrast, were a bit messy in the field and Lions opener Reeza Hendricks stroked them all over the park in a wonderful 39 off 28 balls.

It gave the Lions a great start and a composed Rassie van der Dussen (above) looked set to give them a big finish, having cruised to a promising 37 not out off 24 balls, when the rain came down.

Harmer (3-0-19-1), Chris Morris (3-0-10-0) and Lungi Ngidi (30-19-1) were best with the ball.

Migael Pretorius, in at No 8, snatched an extraordinary lastover win for his Knights team over the Cobras with the bat in the earlier game.

The Knights needed a virtually insurmountable 16 runs off the last three balls and Pretorius scored the runs with two sixes and a four off Ziyaad Abrahams.

The Knights had been chasing 168, the highest total of the competition so far. after the Cobras posted 167/5 (Zubayr Hamza 77* off 49 balls).