Going back to basics helped Lions beat Warriors in 4-Day Cup final

Going back to the basics proved to be key in the Lions turning around the CSA 4-Day Series final and clinching a comfortable eight wicket win over the Warriors at the Wanderers in Johannesburg last week.

Although the four-day final is played over five days, it only took three to decide a winner after a second innings collapse from the Warriors essentially handed the trophy to the hosts.

It is the third straight year that the Lions have claimed the 4-Day Series title, after beating the Dolphins two seasons ago, followed by them sharing the trophy with the Titans last season after a weather-affected draw, despite being the better team.

This season there was no such drama as the Lions made sure of an outright win, despite being second best for the first two days.

Batting first, the Warriors scored 305 all out, thanks to centuries from JP King (123) and Jordan Hermann (110), while Delano Potgieter (3/34), Wiaan Mulder (3/48) and Codi Yusuf (2/56) were the chief wicket-takers for the Lions.

The Lions responded with 295 all out, after being reduced to 52/4 and 170/7. Potgieter rescued them by marshalling the tail, and top scoring with an unbeaten 88.

Mulder (57) also contributed, while important lower order runs from Yusuf (25) and Beyers Swanepoel (35) also helped dig them out of the hole. Matthew Boast, with 5/58, led the Warriors bowling effort.

Disastrous second innings

A disastrous second innings from the visitors saw them skittled for just 95 runs, thanks largely to brilliant bowling from Yusuf (5/34) and Swanepoel (4/26) that meant the hosts needed 106 runs to win, which they easily chased down thanks to an unbeaten 69 from Zubayr Hamza.

Hamza explained that it was their mantra of doing the basics well, that allowed them to fight back from what seemed to be a losing position at stages in their first innings.

“We keep getting reminded that if we can do the basics for longer than the opposition then we can perform better overall. We train at a certain intensity, and at times we lacked that intensity (in the match), and we lost sessions to the opposition,” said Hamza after the game.

“But when we pull back to that original idea, that this is the strategy and we keep it simple by playing with high intensity and aggression, that pays off well for us when we take our chances.

“We work hard in training, so to see the fruits of our labour pay off and to earn that reward with a trophy is awesome. It is very much deserved, over the past three seasons we have done it, and we have kept raising the bar for ourselves and what we want to achieve.”

Proud Warriors captain

Warriors captain Senuran Muthusamy was proud of the effort of his young team, despite their second innings implosion, and said that they would recover quickly before having a crack at more silverware, having won the CSA T20 competition, as the One Day Cup gets under way later this week.

“I think we played two really good days of cricket and the boys were really on it, it was incredible. We got a little bit unlucky, Matt Boast went down on his ankle and Gideon Peters hurt his shoulder, so that left our bowling a little bit light,” said Muthusamy.

“That slightly contributed to us not bowling out the Lions as early as we would have liked. But then credit to the Lions guys, they batted really well. They have a lot of experience in their team, and they are a really tough team to beat.

“Credit to the Warriors guys, we’ve had an incredible season and to get into the four-day final was fantastic. There are a lot of youngsters in the team, they are always learning, and it’s a great experience. A lot of them were playing in their first four-day final, and they will be wiser for that.

“There are lots of positives from the season. The guys are learning and they played incredible cricket. It’s just about putting things into perspective, obviously the loss hurts deeply at the moment, but we will work through it, freshen up and get geared up for the next competition that lies ahead.”