With assistance from an afternoon thunderstorm, the Four-Day Series final will need its fifth day, with the match delicately poised and both the DP World (Central Gauteng) Lions and WSB Western Province believing they can annex the title.
For the first time in the match, the Lions were able to gain the ascendancy yesterday, thanks to the sterling efforts of Delano Potgieter, who produced a career-best 155 not out which allowed the home team to set WP a target of 308.
An hour-long delay for lightning and showers was followed by a brief period in which three overs were played, before the officials decided that the light was too poor for any further action.
The visitors will resume this morning on 99/3, still trailing by 210 runs. That total represented a recovery from 57/3, after WP lost three wickets for two runs in 14 balls before tea.
Left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin took two of those; Ed Moore was superbly caught at short leg by Josh Richards for 26 before Yaseen Vallie was taken by the same fielder without scoring.
In the next over, Malusi Siboto produced a peach, which moved and bounced, finding the outside edge of the bat of Gavin Kaplan, one of WP’s three first innings half-centurions, with Ryan Rickelton taking a good catch diving to his right. Despite that success the Lions will still be rueing the dropped catch by Zubayr Hamza at third slip that gave Tony de Zorzi a life in the first over.
By any standard it was an easy chance and with De Zorzi still at the crease on 38 in the company of his skipper Kyle Verreynne at stumps, WP will believe their hopes of adding the Four-Day title to the One-Day Cup are still alive.
Verreynne certainly will be desperate to atone for his poor captaincy in the final session on Friday night and yesterday morning, which gave Potgieter too many easy scoring opportunities.
WP were as rotten as a bag of month-old fruit in the morning, with fielders looking like they were just letting the morning pass them by, while Verreynne employed boundary-riders for the Lions’ No 10 batter Codi Yusuf.
The loud cheer that came from the home side’s changeroom when Potgieter scrambled for the single that brought up his century indicated how much his performance re-energised his teammates.
When he arrived at the crease with the Lions 113/6, their lead was just 26 and it looked like a three-day finish was in the offing. But Friday’s 86-run eighth-wicket partnership that Potgieter shared with Fortuin was a momentum changer.
The 27-year-old Potgieter found the right balance between defence and attack and was able to take advantage of WP’s charity. In bringing up his 150, Potgieter also took the Lions’ lead past 300, a scarcely believable landmark given their position the previous afternoon.
Mthiwekhaya Nabe, who took wickets with consecutive deliveries to start the LIons’ mini-collapse, finished with 4/90, but like the rest of the WP attack, he looked in desperate need of some R&R as Potgieter and the Lions’ tail wagged with relish.
Yusuf, who made 46, shared a 118-run partnership for the ninth wicket with Potgieter, further underlining the Lions’ superiority in the morning. Today looms as an exciting day, and a tight finish would do a lot to elevate a competition Cricket SA has tried its best to push to the margins. A first prize of R1.5m will certainly serve as sufficient motivation.
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