Western Province beat the Central Gauteng Lions by five wickets in their T20 Challenge match at St George’s Park on Sunday.

Having won the toss and opted to bowl first, WP restricted the Lions to 140-5, with Beuran Hendricks and Junaid Dawood each picking up two wickets.

Mitchell van Buuren top-scored for the Lions with 44 from 34 balls, while Kagiso Rapulana made an unbeaten 32 from 36.

WP, without big-hitting opener Richard Levi, were crusing to victory at 91-2 after 12 overs before Dane Vilas was stumped for eight.

They then lost two quick wickets with the score on 113 as Tony de Zorzi (42 off 31 balls) gave his wicket away by trying to lap Codi Yusuf over the short fine leg only to be caught and Wayne Parnell was run out for a duck.

But Yassen Vallie (21*) and Aviwe Mgijima (16*) kept cool heads and got their team home with five balls remaining.

Opener Gavin Kaplan also made an important 39 off 32 balls.