The Highveld Lions scored more runs then the Dolphins in their Standard Bank Cup cricket match in Durban on Friday night, but by virtue of the Duckworth-Lewis system, ended up losing by 20 runs to their KwaZulu-Natal opponents.
The Dolphins won the toss and elected to bat, but with the score on 100 for two wickets, rain came down, which saw the players off the field for nearly two hours.
The match was reduced to 37 overs a side and the home team went on to score 179/3. With the Duckworth-Lewis system coming into play, the Lions suddenly found themselves needing 204 runs off 37 overs to win the match.
Their task was made even more difficult when opener Adam Bacher went for a duck in the third over of the innings. In the end, they managed only 183 for eight after Andrew Tweedie destroyed their middle order with four wickets for 41 runs.
The target was always going to be out of reach for the Lions, especially when they fell three runs and then as much as eight off the required pace after the Dolphins had set the example with a
whirlwind 79 off their seven post-rain-break overs.
This was probably due in the main to the splendid makeshift opening bowler Jon Kent, whose eight overs cost no more than 21 runs and included the wickets of Bacher and Marthinus Otto (seven).
This was followed by equally tight early spells from Zahir Abrahim and Mfuneko Ngam, who had the misfortune to bowl Lions skipper HD Ackerman off a no-ball and then see Doug Watson drop a catch off the same batsman.
Ackerman (70) and Stephen Cook (63) had at one time got to within sight of the run rate but the Dolphins’ attack, skilfully handled by Lance Klusener, wrested the initiative back towards the Dolphins as the Lions duo consolidated their century partnership to 108 before Cook was run out in a moment of madness by the quick-thinking Klusener.
Ackerman batted for 118 minutes before being bowled by Tweedie, and Cook was at the crease for 136 minutes as he faced 81 balls.
The home side turned the screws after the rain break when they came back for a seven-over slog. Dale Benkenstein (43 not out) and opener Doug Watson (81) added a further 77 runs off 57 balls with seven fours and three sixes before being separated with three balls of the innings remaining for Lance Klusener to face. — Sapa