The Eagles soared into the final of the Standard Bank Cup with a convincing six wicket win over the Lions at Goodyear Park in Bloemfontein on Wednesday.
Batting first on a quality pitch, the Lions never fully recovered from a conservative start. The wicket of Andrew Hall for 10, the unnecessary run out of HD Ackerman for 17 — after being involved in a 52 run partnership with Adam Bacher — the cheap wicket of Neil McKenzie for six and the loss of Bacher for 52, necessitated a
more watchful approach.
This came from Justin Ontong and Vaughn van Jaarsveld. Some fine running between the wickets allowed them to post 58 runs before Van Jaarsveld, on 28, mistimed a full toss to mid-on.
Ontong brought up his 50 in 54 balls as he improvised well during the final overs.
A controversy was alleviated by the television umpire, Marais Erasmus, when Davey Jacobs took a catch a millimetre from stepping onto the midwicket rope to get rid of Ontong for 73.
Derek Crookes finished with 21 off 16 balls to help the Lions to 215 for seven.
Losing two wickets inside the first 10 overs did not slow the Eagles down. The 50 came up in 60 balls as first Morne van Wyk, trapped leg before for 21, and then Boeta Dippenaar attacked the bowling.
With Jacobs adding his weight, before being bowled for 23 off 26 balls, the Eagles raced to 87 for three in the 17th over. The start was ideal for Nicky Boje and Boeta Dippenaar to pace themselves towards the target.
Together they put on 98 when Boje was caught for 60 as he cut straight at point with just 31 runs needed. Dippenaar, undefeated on 84 and Van der Wath on 16, saw the Eagles through to 218 for four and into the final. – Sapa