Malan, Duminy star as Cobras ease to win
while there were two wickets apiece for Kleinveldt and Mthiwekhaya Nabe. Linde’s 1/36 in nine overs was a sterling effort, and reward for some clever thinking from the Cobras’ strategists. Van der Dussen notched up a second consecutive half-century, but he’s been in some very good form of late and needs to start turning these innings’ into something more substantial if the Lions are going to launch a serious challenge for a playoff spot in the next couple of weeks.
He looked very good in compiling 65, sharing partnerships of 48 with Mosehle and 75 with Pretorius who scored 45.
Beuran Hendricks produced his best performance of the season against his former side, bowling with excellent rhythm and pace in a fine opening spell in which he dismissed Richard Levi (40) and Aviwe Mgijima (1) in the ninth over.
Sadly, his fellow bowlers provided little support, with Dwaine Pretorius – despite bowling two maidens – and Hardus Viljoen struggling with line and length. As a result, opener Pieter Malan and skipper JP Duminy could forge a relatively comfortable 129-run third-wicket stand that put the game to bed for the visitors.
Neither was overly aggressive, with Duminy producing some characteristically elegant drives, and Malan stepping occasionally out of his measured approach to produce some aggressive shots through the on side.
Malan was, frustratingly for him, out within sight of a century trying to smash Reeza Hendricks over the leg-side only to top-edge the ball and offer the wicketkeeper a simple catch after scoring 89.
Duminy finished the match with a four over square-leg, ending unbeaten on 80 as the Cobras recorded back-to-back wins over the two Gauteng franchises to keep themselves joint top of the log.