Cape Town – Beuran Hendricks followed up a career-best One-Day Cup performance on Friday with another scintillating display on Sunday to help the Cape Cobras destroy a powerful Highveld Lions batting line-up at Boland Park in Paarl.
Left-arm paceman Hendricks grabbed 3/18 in eight overs as the Lions were shot out for just 133 in 40.3 overs, which should see the Cobras taking a step closer to securing a home final at Newlands with two league matches left after this one.
Boasting a high-class top-order of Stephen Cook, Rassie van der Dussen, Alviro Petersen and Temba Bavuma, the Lions wouldn’t have been too unhappy to bat first after Cobras captain Justin Ontong won the toss and chose to field.
Cook and Bavuma come off good performances for the Proteas in the final Test against England, while Petersen has been outstanding in the One-Day Cup this season, having scored five hundreds. Van der Dussen is a hard-hitting opener who often gets the side off to a quick start.
But the 25-year-old Hendricks – who took 5/31 in Friday’s win over the Titans in Benoni – wasn’t intimidated by the Lions quartet, with Hendricks making the early breakthroughs when he dismissed Van der Dussen caught and bowled for two.
Petersen then walked to the wicket, but didn’t last long as he drove hard off the back foot and got an edge as Hendricks moved the ball across the right-hander, with Dane Vilas taking an easy catch behind.
Suddenly the Lions were 5/2 off three overs, and worse was to follow five balls later as Dane Paterson (2/26) got rid of Bavuma for a duck with a lovely delivery that pitched on off and straightened to get the nick to Vilas.
That took the score to 7/3, and the nightmare continued for the Gauteng side as Cook flashed outside his off-stump to Wayne Parnell (2/35) and proceeded to chop the ball back on to his stumps to be out for nine.
The Lions were in tatters at 24/4 in the 11th over, and never recovered from those early setbacks and lost wickets at regular intervals.
The lone hand for Geoffrey Toyana’s team was left-hander Dominic Hendricks, who batted for 20 minutes short of three hours for a vital 44 not out off 83 balls (1x4). He worked the ball around the field on a pitch that didn’t look like it had any demons in it – it was perhaps a touch slow, but was definitely not a 133 all out wicket.
Proteas Test spinner Dane Piedt continued his good run with the ball as he got sharp turn and good bounce to the Lions’ lower middle-order. Ontong even employed a short leg at one stage in Omphile Ramela, who put down a sharp chance offered by Nicky van den Bergh.
But the miss wasn’t costly as two balls later, Piedt (2/20) tossed the ball up into the air and Van den Bergh (15) edged it to Andrew Puttick at slip.
Sean Jamison (15) and Pumelela Matshikwe (15) helped Dominic Hendricks to take the Lions to some respectability and past the 100 mark, but each Cobras bowler claimed one of the last five wickets to fall to set up what should be a straightforward victory on Sunday afternoon.
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