Johannesburg - With Ryan Rickelton having a rare off-day - to which he’s entitled - Mitchell van Buuren and Dominic Hendricks both make hundreds to set up another bonus-point victory to overtake Western Province at the top of the CSA One-Day Cup table.
Van Buuren and Hendricks provided the backbone for another prodigious Lions effort ensuring that friendly batting conditions were utilised and the Knights’ awful bowling was punished.
It’s not that the Lions were in any trouble. The top three, Rickelton, Josh Richards and Reeza Hendricks all made 30s but at 109/3 in the 20th over when Rickelton was dismissed by Alfred Mothoa wafting at a ball off the back that went across and edging behind to the wicketkeeper, the Knights had an opening.
Van Buuren and Hendricks played carefully and smartly, taking singles, manoeuvring the field while taking advantage of what at that stage was the odd bad ball from the Knights attack.
It was the visiting team’s best period, but unfortunately not one where they were able to make another breakthrough and as a result the Lions batters gradually reasserted their team’s dominance.
Van Buuren, who has had a quiet season, shifted through the gears, driving the ball with power and giving himself room to hit over the off-side. One of his two sixes had a touch of AB de Villiers about it, as having given himself room outside leg stump, and the bowler, Mothoa ‘following’ him, Van Buuren adjusted and flicked the ball onto the wooden seats on the Eastern side of the ground.
Van Buuren needed 98 balls to register his third One-Day hundred. Hendricks needed nine balls fewer and for anyone who’s watched his career, they’d be shocked.
However the Lions captain, after that initial period to get himself set, played fluently, driving the ball beautifully and then delivering some muscular sixes - one straight down the ground off Mbulelo Budaza and the other a pull shot that sent the ball onto the grass embankment.
Together he and Van Buuren added 212 runs for the fourth wicket, providing the Lions with control at the halfway mark.
Gihahn Cloete made a lively 44 to give the Knights hope early, but other than a 61-run partnership for the second wicket with the debutant Nathan Roux, who scored 28, the rest of the Knights batting was flimsy.
Evan Jones claimed two wickets, the first the result of an excellent diving catch by Rickelton - proving again his ankle problem is manageable - was Roux’s downfall. Wickets fell at regular intervals thereafter as the hapless Knights, who are favourites for relegation, fell to their fourth defeat in this season’s competition.
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