Rassie van der Dussen, who ended the top batsman in the Sunfoil series, was hailed by his teammates as the Players’ Player of the Year at the Highveld Lions’ awards ceremony at Sun City on Thursday night.

He was also named Batsman of the Year after scoring 959 runs from 18 innings with the impressive average of 73.76 in the first-class series and a best of 163, while he ended fifth in the One-Day Cup list with 432 at 48.

Reeza Hendricks’ stellar season saw him earn the Player of the Year award. He led the scoring in the Ram Slam with 361 runs from seven innings, averaging 120 and striking at 137. He was also ranked eighth in the Sunfoil series, with 658 at an average of 43.86 as an opener.

The award for Bowler of the Year went to Beuran Hendricks, who proved to be superb value for his team in all formats.

The Lions ended on a high by beating the Cobras in the last game of the season (in which Van der Dussen scored 122) after a difficult campaign which saw them fall short in all formats and ended in their coach, Geoffrey Toyana, being redeployed as the High Performance Coach.

The event, which earlier in the day saw cricket players, partners and sponsors applying their golfing skills at the home of the Nedbank Golf Challenge, continued as an elegant affair against the backdrop of the 9th hole of the Gary Player Golf Course.

‘Every team goes through seasons that highlight areas that growth is still required and we are opting to take this learning curve as an opportunity to focus on plans that will enable us to achieve the potential that we know lies within the Lions and its shareholders,’ said chief executive officer, Greg Fredericks.

Photo: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix