An unbeaten 39 by Auto Investments North West Dragons batter Wihan Lubbe ensured his side claimed a comfortable six-wicket win over the Dafabet Warriors in the penultimate round of the CSA T20 Challenge in Potchefstroom on Friday evening.
Lubbe struck one four and three sixes in his 25-ball stay at the crease as the Dragons reached their target of 146 with nine balls to spare.
The Dragons' chase started quickly as Meeka-eel Prince and Rubin Hermann raced to 41 after the first five overs.
Prince struck three fours and a six for his 22 but was given out leg before wicket off the first ball of the sixth over, bowled by Sean Whitehead, who conceded just one run as the Dragons finished the power play on 42/1.
The home side reached their 50 off 49 balls, hitting four fours and two sixes, but they lost a second wicket when Whitehead struck again to remove Rubin Hermann (14), who was also given out LBW.
Lesiba Ngoepe took the attack to Whitehead, bowling his final over, taking his score to 16 but JP King castled him to leave the Dragons on 73/3 in the 11th over with 73 runs still to get from 57 balls.
Raynard van Tonder and Lubbe added 28 runs to take the Dragons past 100 as they needed 38 runs from the final 30 balls.
The duo added 10 more runs to their partnership before Siya Simetu struck in his second over, removing the set batter Van Tonder for 31 from 32 to have the Dragons on 111/4.
A 16-run over by Jordan Hermann, who was punished for two huge sixes off Lubbe’s bat, took the game away from the Warriors in the 17th over.
Lubbe was there at the end when skipper Senuran Muthusamy hit the winning runs to finish on 14 not out and hand the Warriors their third defeat in a row.
Whitehead and King shared three wickets while conceding 44 runs in their combined eight overs, while Simetu finished on 1/9 from two overs.
Earlier, 45 from 35 by Warriors skipper Matthew Breetzke coupled with a 49-run sixth-wicket partnership by King and Andile Mokgakane helped them post 145/7.
After winning the toss, the home side struck three times in the power play as Diego Rosier fell for four runs, trapped leg before wicket to Kerwin Mungroo before Breetzke and Hermann shared 30 runs.
Hermann (11) was dismissed by Duan Jansen before Gideon Peters removed Patrick Kruger for a duck as the Warriors reached 47/3 after six overs.
Breetzke then combined with Sinethemba Qeshile to add 28 runs to the score taking the Warriors to 78 but would fall in consecutive overs, first Qeshile (16) LBW to Muthusamy, before Breetzke (45) was stumped by Prince off Caleb Seleka.
At 82/5, King and Mokgakane steadied the ship by rotating the strike and punishing the bad ball while taking the visitors to 106 after 15 overs.
Mokgakane (25) was caught on the boundary in the penultimate over bowled by Peters before Whitehead fell to Mungroo for five runs as the visitors fell five short of 150.
Mungroo and Peters returned figures of 2/29 and 2/28 respectively.
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Dragons overcome Warriors by six wickets
Sports reporter
Image: Lee Warren/Gallo Images
An unbeaten 39 by Auto Investments North West Dragons batter Wihan Lubbe ensured his side claimed a comfortable six-wicket win over the Dafabet Warriors in the penultimate round of the CSA T20 Challenge in Potchefstroom on Friday evening.
Lubbe struck one four and three sixes in his 25-ball stay at the crease as the Dragons reached their target of 146 with nine balls to spare.
The Dragons' chase started quickly as Meeka-eel Prince and Rubin Hermann raced to 41 after the first five overs.
Prince struck three fours and a six for his 22 but was given out leg before wicket off the first ball of the sixth over, bowled by Sean Whitehead, who conceded just one run as the Dragons finished the power play on 42/1.
The home side reached their 50 off 49 balls, hitting four fours and two sixes, but they lost a second wicket when Whitehead struck again to remove Rubin Hermann (14), who was also given out LBW.
Lesiba Ngoepe took the attack to Whitehead, bowling his final over, taking his score to 16 but JP King castled him to leave the Dragons on 73/3 in the 11th over with 73 runs still to get from 57 balls.
Raynard van Tonder and Lubbe added 28 runs to take the Dragons past 100 as they needed 38 runs from the final 30 balls.
The duo added 10 more runs to their partnership before Siya Simetu struck in his second over, removing the set batter Van Tonder for 31 from 32 to have the Dragons on 111/4.
A 16-run over by Jordan Hermann, who was punished for two huge sixes off Lubbe’s bat, took the game away from the Warriors in the 17th over.
Lubbe was there at the end when skipper Senuran Muthusamy hit the winning runs to finish on 14 not out and hand the Warriors their third defeat in a row.
Whitehead and King shared three wickets while conceding 44 runs in their combined eight overs, while Simetu finished on 1/9 from two overs.
Earlier, 45 from 35 by Warriors skipper Matthew Breetzke coupled with a 49-run sixth-wicket partnership by King and Andile Mokgakane helped them post 145/7.
After winning the toss, the home side struck three times in the power play as Diego Rosier fell for four runs, trapped leg before wicket to Kerwin Mungroo before Breetzke and Hermann shared 30 runs.
Hermann (11) was dismissed by Duan Jansen before Gideon Peters removed Patrick Kruger for a duck as the Warriors reached 47/3 after six overs.
Breetzke then combined with Sinethemba Qeshile to add 28 runs to the score taking the Warriors to 78 but would fall in consecutive overs, first Qeshile (16) LBW to Muthusamy, before Breetzke (45) was stumped by Prince off Caleb Seleka.
At 82/5, King and Mokgakane steadied the ship by rotating the strike and punishing the bad ball while taking the visitors to 106 after 15 overs.
Mokgakane (25) was caught on the boundary in the penultimate over bowled by Peters before Whitehead fell to Mungroo for five runs as the visitors fell five short of 150.
Mungroo and Peters returned figures of 2/29 and 2/28 respectively.
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