Johannesburg - Mamelodi Sundowns opened up a commanding ten point lead at the top of the Premiership table with a 2-0 victory over SuperSport United at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Tuesday.
Goals from Asavela Mbekile and playmaker, Khama Billiat ensured Pitso Mosimane’s side the bragging rights in the Pretoria derby.
The Brazilians started the game well with Zimbabwean Billiat creating problems for SuperSport’s defence early on.
He set up their first chance in the 20th minute when he flashed the ball across the goal, but Matsatsantsa defender Michael Boxall was alert to the danger.
Downs continued to knock on the door and in the 27th minute Billiat was once again involved.
Keegan Dolly controlled a well taken cross from Billiat, but the South Africa Under-23 international fired his shot wide of the goal.
Referee Daniel Bennet was forced to stop the game just past the half hour mark as torrential rain as well as thunder and lightning made it dangerous for all involved.
Five minutes after play resumed the deadlock was broken. A swift counter from Sundowns allowed striker, Leonardo Castro to play in Mbekile who opened the scoring with a delightful chip over SuperSport goalkeeper Ronwen Williams.
Minutes later, some good work from Thuso Phala down the right wing saw him cut inside and shoot across goal but he failed to trouble Dennis Onyango in the Sundowns goal.
Ten minutes into the second half and Stuart Baxter’s team spurned their best chance of the game.
Dean Furman played in Phala who squared ball to Kingston Nkhatha, but the striker failed to make contact with the ball with no Sundowns defender in sight.
With fifteen minutes to go Castro turned provider once again and sent Billiat through on goal.
The Sundowns talisman slotted the ball calmly past Williams to register his ninth league goal of the season.
Pitso Mosimane said: “They are a decent team, they had chances. We had a few opportunities, Stuart Baxter is doing a good job. He must sort it out.”
Stuart Baxter added: “We dropped off and they had a lot of possession, they built confidence through possession. I didn’t think that they hurt us that much but we didn’t create enough.
African News Agency