Knights captain Theunis de Bruyn scored a delightful century and Marchant de Lange took four wickets to guide their side to a convincing 100 runs victory over the Cobras during their Momentum One Day Cup match at Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
After winning the toss, De Bruyn chose to bat and the move proved to be the correct one as they his knock of 132 off 117 balls, which was his third List A century, helped the Knights to a commanding total of 308 which proved too much for the Cobras.
The other contributors with the bat for the Knights as they went about their business of setting the target were Diego Rosier and Pite van Biljoen who contributed 40 runs each to the scoreboard.
The other notable contributors to their cause were Shadley van Schalkwyk and wicket-keeper Rudi Second who scored 26 and 24 respectively as the recently crowned Sunfoil Series champions got their limited overs campaign to a convincing start.
With the ball, De Lange was supported by Van Schalkwyk with two wickets while Duane Olivier, Mbulelo Budaza, Aubrey Swanepoel and Tshepo Ntuli claimed one scalp each to restrict the Cobras for 208 after 41.1 overs.
Second also took five catches behind the stumps to complete what has been a complete team performance by the Knights.
In their chase, Cobras survive a scare in the first ball when hard hitting Richard Levi was dropped by Grant Mokoena from the bowling of De Lange.
Cobras’ luck did not last long as they lost their first wicket after three overs when Budaza took a wonderful flying catch to remove left hander Omphile Ramela for nine runs from the bowling of De Lange.
It got worse eight balls later when De Lange struck again for his second wicket when he removed Levi after he caught the ball from the bat of the Cobras opener as the visitors began to struggle.
Two overs later, De Lange continued to rip through the Cobras top order and this time he removed the important scalp of Justin Ontong who was caught by Rosier at backward square leg to give the home side an early advantage.
After the loss of three early wickets, experienced Dane Vilas and Stiaan van Zyl started to rebuild but their fourth wicket partnership of 45 was broken in the 18th over to leave Cobras struggling on 93/4.
From the bowling of Van Schalkwyk, Pite van Biljon caught Vilas at short cover to sent him back to the pavilion having contributed only 14 runs off 31 balls.
Cobras’ middle order continued to collapse and the next victim was Van Zyl, who watched helplessly as the ball hit the stumps from the bowling of spinner Swanepoel after he moved down the wicket to attack.
Cobras put together another combination with Aviwe Mgijima and Jason Smith part of a sixth wicket partnership of 67 but it was broken in the 32nd over when the latter edged the ball to Second behind the stumps from the bowling of Ntuli.
Smith’s departure introduced Rory Kleinveldt to the crease but he lasted only three minutes as he was caught by Second after he edged his effort from the bowling of Budaza three balls later as Cobras sunk to 170/7.
Olivier got his name on the wicket takers list when he dismissed Dane Piedt for eleven runs and De Lange removed Mgijima after a useful half century while Van Schalkwyk completed the rout with the wicket of George Linde.
- TMG Digital
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 