Dragons condemn Warriors to third defeat in a row

A stunning cameo by Auto Investments North West Dragons batter Wihan Lubbe helped his side claim a comfortable six-wicket win over the Dafabet Warriors in the penultimate round of the CSA T20 Challenge at the JB Marks Oval in Potchefstroom on Friday.

Lubbe struck a four and three sixes in his unbeaten 33 runs off 25 balls as the Dragons reached the 146-run winning target with nine balls to spare.

Earlier, 45 from 35 by Warriors skipper Matthew Breetzke coupled with a 49-run sixth-wicket partnership by King and Andile Mokgakane helped them post 145/7 at the halfway stage.

The Dragons' chase got off to a fast start as Meeka-eel Prince and Rubin Hermann raced to 41 after the first five overs.

Prince struck three fours and a six for his 22 but he was given out leg before wicket off the first ball of the sixth over, bowled by Sean Whitehead, who conceded just one run as the Dragons finished the power play on 42/1.

The home side reached their 50 off 49 balls, hitting four fours and two sixes, but they lost a second wicket when Whitehead struck again to remove Rubin Hermann (14), who was also given out LBW.

Lesiba Ngoepe took the attack to Whitehead in his final over, taking his score to 16 but he was castled by JP King an over later to leave the Dragons on 73/3 in the 11th over, with 73 runs still to get from 57 balls.

Raynard van Tonder and Lubbe added 28 runs to take the Dragons past 100 as they needed 38 runs from the final 30 balls.

The duo added 10 more runs to their partnership before Siya Simetu struck in his second over, removing the set batter Raynard van Tonder for 31 from 32, with the Dragons on 111/4.

A 16 run over by Jordan Hermann, who was punished by two massive sixes off Lubbe’s bat, took the game away from the Warriors in the 17th over.

Lubbe finished unbeaten on 39 while skipper Senuran Muthusamy hit the winning runs to end not out on 14 and hand the Warriors their third defeat in a row.

Whitehead and King shared three wickets while conceding 44 runs in their combined eight overs, while Simetu finished on 1-9 from two overs.

WARRIORS IN TROUBLE

Winning the toss and asking the Warriors to bat first, the hosts pinned back the visiting batters taking three wickets while conceding 47 runs after the first six overs.

Diego Rosier (4), making his first appearance for the Warriors this season, was trapped leg before wicket by Kerwin Mungroo in the third over.

As Breetzke kept the scoreboard ticking over, wickets continued to fall around him as Jordan Hermann (11) was out caught by Rubin Hermann off Duan Jansen after sharing 30 runs with the skipper, while Patrick Kruger fell for a duck in the next over, caught by Wihan Lubbe off Gideon Peters to close out the powerplay.

Breetzke and Sinethemba Qeshile then combined to add 28 for the fourth wicket, taking their side to 72/3 at the halfway mark.

Qeshile (16) was trapped in front by Muthusamy, before Breetzke, whose 35 ball innings included three fours and three sixes, danced past a Caleb Seleka delivery that was collected by wicketkeeper Prince before whipping off the bails, to leave the Warriors in trouble on 79/5 in the 12th over.

Mokgakane and King took the Warriors to 106/5 after 15 overs, with both right-handers looking to accelerate in the final 30 balls of their innings.

The partnership was broken one run short of a half century when Mokgakane tried to hook Peters but did not connect properly and was caught by Ngoepe on the fence for a run a ball 25.

Peters conceded just seven runs while taking a wicket in the penultimate over, before Whitehead (5) fell in the final over as the Warriors fell five runs short of 150.

Mungroo and Peters returned figures of 2-29 and 2-28 respectively, while Jansen, Muthusamy and Seleka took one wicket each.

NORTH WEST DRAGONS: Rubin Hermann, Meeka-eel Prince (wk), Lesiba Ngoepe, Wihan Lubbe, Raynard van Tonder, Senuran Muthusamy (C), Duan Jansen, Bamanye Xenxe, Caleb Seleka, Kerwin Mungroo, Gideon Peters

DEFABET Warriers: Matthew Breetzke (c), Diego Rosier, Jordan Hermann, Patrick Kruger, Sinethemba Qeshile (wk), Andile Mogakane, JP King, Sean Whitehead, Nealan van Heerden, Siya Simetu, Alfred Mothoa.