By OBAKENG MELETSE
The Lions moved to second place in the Cricket South Africa T20 Challenge following a dominant power-hitting display by Proteas opener Reeza Hendricks in their win over Western Province at Newlands in Cape Town on Wednesday night.
The home side chose to field after they won the toss, a decision they came to regret halfway through the match as the Lions posted an imposing 213-2 in 20 overs.
Western Province were bowled out for just 81 to lose by a massive 132 runs, with 5.3 overs remaining, as they suffered their second consecutive loss at home.
The Lions opening pair of Hendricks and Ryan Rickelton put on 151 for the first wicket, and the few spectators who were present at Newlands were treated to some clean hitting.
Hendricks followed up his half-century against Boland Rocks with a typically free-flowing innings of 90 off 49 balls (5x4, 6x6) to record his third half-century of the tournament.
His form comes at the right time, with the T20 World Cup edging closer and a need for cementing places as important as ever.
Rickelton, back at the ground where he had a season to remember for MI Cape Town in the SA20 competition, was out to replicate the form that made him the most feared batter in that tournament.
Province would have hoped for Rickelton not to be at his best, at least not against them, but with the T20 Challenge nearing its end and the hope of a World Cup spot possibly being determined by how he finishes this tournament, he hit himself back into contention with a fluent 73 off 46 balls (5x4, 4x6).
George Linde was on the receiving end of three of Rickelton’s sixes in a 14th over that went for 19 runs, but the WP slow left-armer would show his experience and class as he saw the back of Rickelton and still managed to end with figures of 1-34 off his four overs.
Province pulled things back nicely after the loss of Rickelton by starving Hendricks of the strike.
The last five overs only went for 48 runs, considering that the Lions were 151-1 after 14 overs.
🦁 DP World Lions win and make it back-to-back victories on the road
— DP World Lions (@LionsCricketSA) April 3, 2024
A polished performance with bat and ball sees us beat Province by 132 runs. 🏏#WozaNawe #BePartOfIt #LionsCricket #ThePrideOfJozi pic.twitter.com/2LgYO7Y822
The pitch responded well to spin as Kyle Simmonds (4-0-34-0) and Juan James (2-0-15-0) did well to pull things back and restrict the Lions to 213-2.
Wayne Parnell, playing in his 300th T20 match, was put under pressure early by both openers and ended with figures of 0-58, putting a dent on his special night.
Needing to score at over 10 runs per over, WP committed one of the biggest sins in chasing a large total as they lost four wickets inside the power play, with Lutho Sipamla running in with purpose and picking up three scalps.
Sipamla’s spell off three overs went for 14 runs, and the three wickets he picked up took Province out of the game as they played catch up moving forward.
The Lions’ 21-year-old Nqaba Peter helped himself to career-best figures of 4-7 by cleaning up what remained of Province’s tail, with captain Kyle Verreynne the top scorer with 21.