Newlands pitch's feast and famine

The same pitch offered the Lions and the Warriors a feast of runs but starved the Cobras and the Knights in a T20 doubleheader at Newlands on Sunday.

First the Warriors chased down a record target of 183 to beat the Lions by four wickets with an over to spare and celebrate their first success in the five games they have played in the competition this summer.

Then the Knights mustered 159/5, only four first innings in the 10 that have gone to 20 overs this season have been smaller. The Cobras almost let things slip before winning by three wickets with six balls remaining.

Reeza Hendricks' 81 anchored the Lions' sturdy 182/3. He was the common factor in the Lions' opening stand of 87 with Rassie van der Dussen, who scored 45, and a partnership of 82 for the second wicket with Ryan Rickleton, whose 41 came off 23 balls.

It took the Warriors until the third-last ball of the innings to remove Hendricks, whowas caught at mid-off.

The Warriors' biggest successful reply in the competition's history was due in no small part to Colin Ingram's 89, which started in the second over, endured into the 18th, was scored off 48 balls and featured five fours and seven sixes.

The key stand was the 93 that Ingram and Christiaan Jonker, who scored 39, shared for the fourth wicket.

The Knights would have wondered where all those runs went when Theunis de Bruyn and David Miller got going. De Bruyn's 40 came off 20 balls and included three fours and as many sixes, and Miller hit three fours and two sixes in his 50.

But Ryan McLaren's unbeaten 31 was the Knights' only other decent effort which was a feather in the cap of Rory Kleinveldt.

The Cobras also struggled at the crease, where their required runrate ballooned to more than 11 with five overs to go.

JP Duminy kept them in with an innings that was unfairly ended in the 19th over with the scores tied. He clearly edged a ball from Marchant de Lange onto his pad, but he was given out leg-before for 67.

Kleinveldt belted De Lange's next delivery through third man for four to win the match.