Marchant de Lange’s five-for enabled the Knights to force the Dolphins to follow on in their Sunfoil match in Bloemfontein.

He ended with 5-57, helping to dismiss the Dolphins for 237 and giving the Knights a 241-run lead on the first innings. The visitors managed to survive the five overs before the close without loss, and with nine runs on the board.

In that first innings, Senuran Muthusamy stood like a rock with little support, ending with a valiant 95 off 193 balls, and Robbie Frylinck added a desperately needed 57. However, with Sibonelo Makhanya’s 26 being the next best score, they were on the slide. Duanne Olivier’s 2-69 and Theunis de Bruyn’s 2-42 provided the finishing touches.

With the Knights resuming on 400-6 at the start of the day, Shadley van Schalkwyk obviously felt he had been given licence to inflict as much damage as possible, which he did to great effect, slamming 70 off 67 balls and helping to take the Knights to 478.

He was last man out, caught behind off Keshav Maharaj – his fifth wicket off a gruelling 41 overs – which cost 128 runs. That brought to eight the number of batsmen who had fallen to spin, with Muthusamy taking 3-82.

De Lange quickly dispelled the notion that spin would rule.

Knights vs Dolphins scoreboard

 Photo: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix