Magnificent Lions win CSA 4-Day Series trophy

The DP World Lions crowned a magnificent come-from-behind performance to beat Western Province by 99 runs in the CSA 4-Day Series final at the Wanderers in Johannesburg yesterday afternoon.

The Lions, chasing 308 for victory, would have felt some hope of victory at lunch, which they took on 191 for six with Daniel Smith and Kyle Simmonds still at the crease and batting confidently.

In a final surge by the home team after the break, WP lost their last four wickets for just three runs as Bjorn Fortuin completed his seventh fivewicket haul by trapping Smith leg before for 52 his second half-century of the match and then Beuran Hendricks the same way three balls later.

Tshepo Moreki cleaned up by uprooting Simmonds’ middle-stump before he had Dane Paterson held at slip to complete the Lions’ triumph as WP were dismissed for 208 in 77.2 overs.

“We were put massively under the pump on the first morning. Our backs were to the wall, big time, but we kept fighting back,” a proud Lions’ skipper Dominic Hendricks said after accepting a winners’ cheque for R1.5m.

The player-of-the-match award went to Lions’ allrounder Delano Potgieter, who struck 81 and an unbeaten 155 in the match, coming in to bat on 35 for five in the first innings and 113 for six in the second innings.

Potgieter acknowledged he might not have played in the match if Wiaan Mulder had been fit to bowl (in which case specialist batter Mitchell van Buuren would have played).

The end might have come quickly after lunch yesterday, but WP would have entertained hopes of victory in a match which they bossed during the first three days.

Resuming on their overnight total of 99 for three, WP added another 92 runs in the session for the loss of three wickets, two of them contentious lbw decisions.

Tony de Zorzi and Kyle Verreynne took their fourth-wicket partnership to 64 in 142 balls, batting carefully against the tight opening seam attack from Moreki, Codi Yusuf and Malusi Siboto before Verreynne was adjudged leg before to a delivery from Yusuf that nipped back at him.

Verreynne was batting well out of his crease, however, and the ball hit his back pad above the roll so there was a possibility the ball would have gone over the stumps.

De Zorzi was the next to go, once again leg before, this time to Fortuin, with the ball appearing to miss the leg stump as he pushed forward.

He struck a solid 55 in 157 balls his second fifty of the match in an innings that included seven fours.

There was no controversy over the final wicket, however, with Mihlali Mpongwana pushing a delivery from Fortuin to Josh Richards at short-leg.

Richards quickly flicked the ball back, hitting the stumps with a careless Mpongwana just out of his ground.

The victory was a remarkable achievement by the home team, who refused to lie down after they were reduced to 35 for five and 112 for seven in their first innings before recovering to total 225.

In their second innings they were in trouble on 113 for six and 159 for seven before Potgieter, helped by the lower order, took their second innings total to 394, setting WP 308 to win.