File photo – Aaron Phangiso provided the important breakthroughs in the middle © Getty Images
A dominant bowling display followed by brisk fifties from Dominic Hendricks and Rassie van der Dussen carried Lions to the finals of the Momentum One Day Cup competition, with a comfortable eight-wicket D/L win against Warriors in Johannesburg.
After opting to bowl, Lions scythed through Warriors’ top order, leaving them at 61 for 4. Rain interrupted play in the 11th over, and the match was subsequently reduced to 41 overs a side. Nono Pongolo came on to remove Colin Ingram and Yaseen Vallie soon after the break. However, an 89-run stand between Jerry Nqolo and Christiaan Jonker (42) brought Warriors back into the game. Nqolo made a career-best 63 off 68 balls.
Aaron Phangiso, though, had them both bowled in quick succession to stall Warriors’ late surge. Warriors could manage only 38 off the last six overs, to finish with 202 for 8, the wickets equally shared among four bowlers.
Lions’ openers – Stephen Cook and van der Dussen – made a solid start. The momentum swung again as Andrew Birch removed Cook and tournament top-scorer Alviro Petersen in quick succession. Van der Dussen and Hendricks, though, first stabilised the chase, and then got stuck into their work, sharing an unbeaten 128-run stand before the rain came down again, this time ending the match. Van der Dussen finished with 83, while Hendricks was awarded the Man-of-the-Match award for his 56-ball 70.
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo