Lions roar to 1-Day Cup title, led by rampant batting
The Central Gauteng Lions, led by their rampant batting line-up, roared to a hat-trick of 50-over titles on Thursday night as they beat Western Province by 62 runs in the One-Day Cup final at the Wanderers.
With the top four all scoring half-centuries, the Lions raced to 358 for five in their 48 overs after being sent in to bat, the start of the final being delayed due to morning rain.
Paceman Lutho Sipamla then took five wickets as Western Province were bowled out for 296, but they would have been most frustrated by losing three wickets to the part-time off-spin of Reeza Hendricks, who finished with career-best figures of three for 18 in three overs.
Those three wickets put an end to whatever hopes were remaining for Western Province after a strong start. Hendricks came on to bowl with the visitors on 217 for three after 33 overs, needing 142 more runs off 90 balls.
Eddie Moore, who had shown his white-ball value with a run-a-ball 82, targeting the short boundary towards the grass embankment, moved into switch-hit position way too early, Hendricks fired a quicker, shorter delivery outside leg-stump and the cramped reverse-pull went straight to short third man.
Western Province’s obsession with the short boundary continued when, two balls later, Daniel Smith did the same thing. The youngster scored 24 off 29 balls, overdoing his attempts to sweep, both conventionally and reverse, when there were better scoring opportunities straight down the ground.
Earlier, Tony de Zorzi was once again rampant for Western Province at the top of the order, causing the Lions some anxiety with a great effort of 88 off 69 balls.
But Sipamla also took two wickets in an over, the 25th, when he had De Zorzi caught at long-on and then bowled an excellent first delivery to Zubayr Hamza, having him caught behind for a duck.
George Linde kept the visitors in with a slim shout as he belted 42 off 32 balls, before Malusi Siboto dismissed him and last man Nandre Burger off successive deliveries.
The Lions innings was constructed in excellent fashion with openers Josh Richards and Ryan Rickelton putting on 142 in 22 overs.
Richards began the onslaught by taking on the new ball and hammering nine fours and two sixes, but the in-form Rickelton was quickly underway too.
The left-handed wicketkeeper/batsman took over the aggressor’s mantle from Richards and scored freely in a fiery 75 off 63 balls, which included 14 fours, before he was bowled by left-arm spinner Linde.
Richards ploughed on though, adding another 71 in little more than 10 overs with Reeza Hendricks for the second wicket, before being superbly caught one-handed by Beuran Hendricks, diving full-length at wide mid-on, off Nandre Burger, for 94.
Reeza Hendricks maintained the Lions’ dominance though with a stroke-filled 69 off 64 balls, while Mitchell van Buuren turned the knife with a phenomenal 62 off just 36 deliveries.
Evan Jones provided the finishing touches to a record 50-over score for the Lions with his 30 off 16 balls.
Even on a brilliant batting pitch, the Lions had done enough to bat themselves out of reach of Western Province.