Johannesburg — The North West Dragons ensured the final round-robin match of the Cricket South Africa T20 Challenge will decide the four semi-finalists, after hanging on to claim a 22-run victory over the Knights as dark clouds gathered over Potchefstroom on Tuesday afternoon.
If the Lions beat Paarl Rocks in the final round-robin game on Tuesday night, they will qualify for the final four ahead of the Free State team.
However, that match is in jeopardy because of the weather, which looks ominous, with lightning flashing around the university town as the final overs of the Dragons and Knights match played out.
If no result is possible, the Knights will qualify for the semi-finals which will be played on Wednesday.
The Dragons lifted themselves off the bottom of the standings with their second win in this season’s competition, thanks to a half-century from their captain Heino Kuhn (50 off 47 balls) and a thunderous hitting display from Duan Jansen – Marco’s twin brother – who made 39 off 15 balls to propel the Dragons from 101/5 after 16 overs to a final total of 154/6.
Given what was at stake for the Knights, they will bemoan a sloppy fielding performance, with some of the ground fielding extremely amateurish.
With the bat, they lost wickets at regular intervals and the failure to build any momentum through their innings proved costly as they bowled out for 132.
There was a gutsy 36 off 15 balls from Migael Pretorius, but he was the last man out when he was caught on the long-off boundary.
The Knights face a nervous few hours awaiting the outcome of the last round-robin match.
IOL Sport