Lions ‘step forward’ in Twenty20 at last
Highvelders bounce back in final against Titans to claim trophy for first time since 2006-07
THE Highveld Lions roared long, hard and victorious at the Wanderers yesterday to end five barren seasons in which they forgot what winning a trophy feels like.
They did it the hard way, totalling an anaemic 155/5, before hanging tough to dismiss the Titans for 124.
That earned the Lions the honours in the franchise Twenty20 final by 30 runs, and clinched their first trophy since they won the same title in 2006-07. For the first time in the five finals the Joburgers have played in the past three years, they finished on the winning side.
“We’ve been satisfied with reaching finals for years now,” Alviro Petersen said. “Subconsciously, we would step back a bit. This time, we stepped forward.”
For 31 deliveries the game was all about Quinton de Kock, who muscled the sixth ball he faced high over the point ropes to rudely awaken Marchant de Lange from his follow through. De Kock plundered another dozen runs — this time beyond the mid-on and midwicket boundaries — off consecutive balls from Roelof van der Merwe.
But he sent the 31st ball, a warm, fuzzy full toss from Henry Davids, down deep midwicket’s throat and was gone, too soon, for 44.
The only other Lions innings worth remembering was Neil McKenzie’s street-smart 39 off 32 balls, an effort more scrapping than scrappy, that bristled with five fours hit all round the ground.
In the 10 minutes between team innings one question rumbled darkly around the ground: had the Lions scored enough runs? “No,” was the answer that dared not be spoken, except on the light blue islands dotted around the red sea. But the Lions just were not listening.
Aaron Phangiso trapped Heino Kuhn and AB de Villiers in front, the latter for four with a delivery that pitched on middle and straightened superbly. He might have had another when Farhaan Behardien gloved the first ball he faced, only for De Kock to make a hash of the catch.
Chris Morris found a novel way to remove another danger man when he bowled a heaving Herschelle Gibbs for 22.
Behardien fell to a full, straight lbw by Imran Tahir, who also had a slog-sweeping Roelof van der Merwe caught in the deep.
That reduced the Titans to 87/6 in the 14th over. With 68 runs to get and 37 balls to get them with, surely only Albie Morkel and David Wiese could win it for the visitors.
Their stand should have been snuffed out for 17, but Sohail Tanvir and De Kock got into a tangle under a skier from Wiese, and the catch went down.
To the impressively composed Morris went the glory of dismissing Wiese, caught at long-on for 21.
The Lions were in limbo while the legality of the delivery was checked. Then the roaring started.