JOHANNESBURG: Imperial Lions made a strong start to their red-ball campaign when they sealed a convincing innings and 72-run win over the North West Dragons on day three of their CSA Four-Day Domestic Series Division One encounter at the Imperial Wanderers on Sunday.
All CSA Four-Day Domestic Series matches are streamed live on SuperSport’s YouTube channel, with the first round taking place between 29 October-01 November.
The Dragons began the day on 50/3 still needing 199 runs in their second innings to make the Lions bat again, with overnight batters Heino Kuhn (19) and captain Nicky van den Bergh looking to keep their side’s hopes alive.
That hope was further diminished when the Lions picked up two early wickets in the morning session and despite van den Bergh bringing up a commendable 70 off 88 balls, the Lions continued to pick up wickets at regular intervals during the day to eventually bowl out the Dragons for 177.
Malusi Siboto claimed leading figures of four for 21 runs while Duanne Olivier took three for 58 to wrap up the comfortable win.
In Bloemfontein the GbetsRocks posted an impressive first innings response against the home side, the ITEC Knights with talented batter Janneman Malan top-scoring with an unbeaten 139 off 203 balls alongside all-rounder Ferisco Adams (74*) as the visitors reached stumps with a 66-run lead on 386/7 with one day to play.
Meanwhile, the Gbets Warriors and Momentum Multiply Titans clash at SuperSport Park, Centurion is on the brink of a result with the Warriors needing 56 runs to win while the Titans require just three wickets to win. This was after Sibonelo Makhanya hit 74 off 124 balls to help the Titans to a healthy 359 all out second innings score, before the visitors were restricted to 180/7 at the end of the day.
At the Six Gun Grill Newlands in Cape Town, the home side Six Gun Grill Western Province were forced to follow-on after only managing 269 all out in their first innings reply, with Wayne Parnell notching up an undefeated 79 off 103 balls and former SA under-19 captain, Bryce Parsons (5-82) taking his maiden five-wicket haul.
In their second innings, Yaseen Vallie 76 (109) and David Bedingham 50 (49) were the only WP batters to manage a meaningful contribution with the Dolphins bowling well to leave their opponents 186/7 and 34 runs behind at the end of day three.
Day four of the CSA Four-Day Domestic Series takes place on Monday, 01 November and will be live from 10h00 on SuperSport’s YouTube channel.