A brilliant 83 by Rassie van der Dussen gave the Highveld Lions a four-wicket win in a One-Day Cup match against the Warriors in East London.
It was a remarkable innings in that he anchored the attack by working the bowling and running hard. He ended the night with five fours and three sixes, but of those, the three maximums and two fours came off the last 11 balls he faced, once he had broken the spirit of the Warriors attack. Until then, his fifty had come off 49 balls with just three fours.
Despite the efforts of Reeza Hendricks (80) and Dominic Hendricks (65), who put on 132 for the second wicket, the Lions lost three quick wickets and fell off the run-rate. After 44 overs, they needed almost 10 an over with four wickets in hand.
Van der Dussen found a willing partner in Mangaliso Mosehle, who contributed 26 off 25 balls in a 51-run partnership, and an equally effective partner in Wiaan Mulder, back off a injury lay-off, who scored 25 off 17.
Van der Dussen’s final four secured a four-wicket victory with two balls remaining after the Warriors had set a challenging target of 307 to win.
Earlier, Gihahn Cloete (24) and Clyde Fortuin (7) were unable to replicate the form of their previous match, when they put on 91 against the Knights, so it was left to Jon-Jon Smuts and Yaseen Vallie to provide the impetus for the Warriors innings.
They put on 137 for the third wicket, when Smuts was dismissed by the left-arm spin of Aaron Phangiso for 71 off 78 balls. Vallie fell shortly after for 81 off 102, and when Jerry Nqolo followed for 6, the Warriors were on the precipice at 208-5.
But powerful input from Christian Jonker, who added 51 off 30 balls, and the equally significant 34 off 21 from Simon Harmer, gave the Warriors the turbo-charge they needed to breach the 300 mark and finally offer the Lions a run-rate of 6.12. Van der Dussen showed though that it was not enough
Photo: Richard Huggard/Gallo Images
