Bad light had the final say in the Cricket SA 4-Day Series cricket match between the Dafabet Warriors and the Lions at St George’s Park on Wednesday, preventing either side from making a push for victory.
The match was called off just before 4.30pm after gloomy conditions prevented any further play following the afternoon tea break, at which stage the Warriors had reached 116/3 in 47 overs.
The home side had been set a challenging victory target of 327 to win in 89 overs after the Lions declared their second innings on 219/5 after batting for 19 more overs on Wednesday morning.
They had a first innings lead of 107.
It was an interesting target of around 3½ runs to the over for the Warriors, but the loss of three key batsmen by the time they had reached 83 probably drew the sting from any hope they had of chasing down their target.
The home side top order all got good starts, with Jordan Hermann (26), Modiri Litheko (24) and Matthew de Villiers (25) playing themselves in before losing their wickets.
JP King, who made a solid 54 in the first innings, then stepped into the breach and made sure there were no final day flutters as he kept the Lions attack at bay.
He finished on 23 not out and Sinethemba Qeshile lent solid support as they took the score to 116/3 when the conditions put an end to the proceedings.
Lions spinner Bjorn Fortuin completed an outstanding match, following his undefeated century in the first innings with a match haul of five wickets (2/35 on Tuesday), all the while keeping the batsmen in check with the run-rate.
Earlier, resuming at 114/4, the Lions enthusiastically set about setting their opponents a substantial total to chase, advancing their score by 105 runs in 19 overs.
The man largely responsible for this was Test player Wiaan Mulder, who cracked nine fours and a six off 108 balls in his undefeated 89.
After losing Connor Esterhuizen for 17, he and Delano Potgieter (32 not out off 37 balls with four fours) got on with things in a brisk stand of 78 in 15 overs for the sixth wicket.
The Herald
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