Hardus Viljoen took his fourth five-wicket haul of the Sunfoil competition as the Highveld Lions romped to an innings victory over the Chevrolet Warriors at the Wanderers on Sunday, while the Titans and Cobras also ended with a flourish.
The Lions had secured the Sunfoil trophy with their victory over the Dolphins last weekend, but they emphasised their dominance with their seventh win of the season and celebrated in style. The finished almost 40 points clear of the Titans on the log..
Viljoen picked up four of the nine wickets that the Lions required on the final day and finished with figures of 5 for 59, as the Warriors were bowled out for 213 in their second innings to lose by an innings and 51 runs.
Their captain, Stephen Cook, ended as the top run scorer with 889 runs at an average of 63.5, while Viljoen and Kagiso Rabada were joint second on the wicket-taking list with 39 scalps each after the Cobras’ Dane Paterson , who ended with 42.
Titans v Knights, Centurion
The Titans soared into second place on the Sunfoil log by beating the Knights by eight wickets.
It was an easy stroll-in at the end, after they had dismissed the Knights for 178 in their follow-on innings, leaving them just 24 required for victory. Dillon Du Preez claimed the wickets of Theunis de Bruyn and Reeza Hendricks in an admirable show of defiance.
The Knights, following on 155 behind, resumed their innings on Sunday at 97-3, but six overs into the day, Reeza Hendricks, on 65 overnight, popped one back to Marchand de Lange, having added just nine to his total, and his overnight companion Pite van Biljon followed shortly afterwards for 36.
No one else offered any meaningful resistance as De Lange ended with 4-50, with two apiece for David Wiese, Ethy Mbhalati and Rowand Richards. The last three wickets fell for 11 runs off 13 balls.
Dolphins v Cape Cobras, Pietermaritzburg
The Cape Cobras ended their Sunfoil campaign on a high, hammering the Dolphins by an innings and 117 runs and leaping into fourth place on the log after stagnating in the basement for much of the season.
This was just their second win, to go alongside four draws by the 2014 champions.
The Cobras, who scored 597 after being invited to bat, could have wrapped up the match on Saturday, but rain washed out the entire evening session. But it took them just 10 overs to reduce the Dolphins from 226-6 overnight to 235 all out. Only Morne van Wyk (122) and his brother Divan (48) had offered any resistance, but for all the Van Wyks’ bravado, the mountain was too high to climb. The ineffectiveness of the Dolphins batting was shown by the fact that Khaya Zondo contributed 120 to their first innings of 145.
Zondo and Morne van Wyk, between them, put on more than half the Dolphins’ total offering of 480 in two innings
Scoreboards:
FINAL LOG
| M | W | L | D | Pts | |
| Lions | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 151.64 |
| Titans | 10 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 111,.76 |
| Dolphins | 10 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 106.95 |
| Cobras | 10 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 87.88 |
| Knights | 10 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 85.80 |
| Warriors | 10 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 71.48 |
