Poor fielding costs the Lions dearly

The Central Gauteng Lions paid for a poor display in the field as they were beaten by just two runs by Western Province in the opening game of the CSA Provincial T20 Cup at the Diamond Oval in Kimberley yesterday.

Having sent Western Province in to bat, the Lions were loose up front and wicketkeeper Ryan Rickelton, seemingly losing the white ball against quite a pale-coloured pitch, dropped opener Tony de Zorzi in the first over off Sisanda Magala.

De Zorzi and Zubayr Hamza went on to add 58 for the first wicket in 7.5 overs as the Lions added sloppy ground fielding and missed half-chances to their woes.

Hamza, who has struggled in T20 cricket before this year, went on to score a brilliant century, only being dismissed in the final over after he had stroked a dazzling 106 off just 63 balls.

With the able support of De Zorzi (26 off 22), Kyle Verreynne (35 off 23) and Wayne Parnell (18 off 8), Hamza led the Cobras to 197/7.

Malusi Siboto rescued an even worse situation for the Lions, economical at the death to finish with a brilliant 4/30 in his four overs.

Young openers Josh Richards (28 off 22) and Rickelton (53 off 31), as well as Shane Dadswell (32 off 14) in the middle overs, were good advertisers for the hitting ability of the Lions, but they fell just short despite the valiant efforts of Magala (23* off 15).

In the other match yesterday, South-Western Districts consigned Northern Cape to a 24-run loss on their home turf.

Yaseen Valli (60 off 49) and captain Jean du Plessis (69 off 39) added 113 to give SWD a great start after they were sent in to bat and Heath Richards then took them to 192/4 with a destructive 41 (14 balls).

Northern Cape were restricted to 168/9 in reply.