Rudi Second steers Knights in small chase

Rudi Second scored an unbeaten 71 in his team's victory © Getty

Warriors vs Knights

After a clinical effort with the ball, the Knights were made to sweat in a small chase but Rudi Second's unbeaten 71 ensured that the visitors prevailed in a low-scoring encounter at the Buffalo Park in East London on Friday (March 15) to register their first victory of the season. Marchant de Lange and Ottniel Baartman bagged three wickets apiece to bowl out the Warriors for 121. The Knights lost half their side for 55 runs in the chase - with Andrew Birch and Sisanda Magala doing the bulk of the damage - before Second came to his side's rescue, leading them to a five-wicket win.

Opting to bowl, Knights struck early through Baartman who accounted for skipper JJ Smuts in the fourth over. A 21-run stand ensued before Warriors suffered a big collapse. Reduced to 34 for 5, No. 6 batsman Marco Marais tried to hold the innings together with a fighting 42. But lack of support from the other end meant that the Warriors' innings came to an end as early as the 27th over.

The Knights didn't fare any better at the start of their innings as they lost their top three for single digits. A 40-run stand between Second and Petrus van Biljon helped steady the chase before the Knights lost two more in quick succession. Second, meanwhile, was finding the boundaries regularly and he eventually found some support in the form of Ryan McLaren, with whom he stitched an unbeaten 67-run stand to help the Knights over the line in the 30th over.

Brief scores: Warriors 121 in 26.3 overs (Marco Marais 42; Marchant de Lange 3-18, Ottniel Baartman 3-32) lost to Knights 122/5 in 29.3 overs (Rudi Second 71*; Sisanda Magala 2-26, Andrew Birch 2-28) by 5 wickets.

Dolphins vs Titans

Heino Kuhn's brisk ton and Junior Dala's five-wicket haul helped Titans register a comfortable 70-run win over the Dolphins at Kingsmead, Durban. Kuhn's 98-ball 107, along with Heinrich Klaasen's 51 served as the backbone for the Titans' imposing total of 300 for 9. Dala and Dean Elgar then picked up nine wickets between them to bowl out the Dolphins for 230, helping their team further strengthen their top position on the points table with their sixth win in eight games.

Vaughn van Jaarsveld's 52 and Sarel Erwee 29 provided the Dolphins a good start to the chase. However, Dala struck at regular intervals, accounting for four of the top five to leave the hosts in a lot of trouble. Sibonelo Makhanya, with a gritty half-century, tried to keep the game alive and he was supported by Eathan Bosch and Prenelan Subrayen. However, it was too much to ask of the lower order as the Dolphins fell well short in the end.

Earlier, asked to bat, the Titans lost Diego Rosier early before Kuhn and Jonathan Vandiar put on a 79-run stand for the second wicket to provide a solid platform. Kuhn was also involved in handy partnerships with Elgar and Klaasen en route his three-figure score which included 11 fours and a six. The Titans lost a few wickets in their push for big runs in the death overs, with Klaasen falling soon after his half-century. But the Titans managed to reach the 300-run mark, which proved to be more than sufficient in the eventual outcome of the game.

Brief scores: Titans 300/9 in 50 overs (Heino Kuhn 107, Heinrich Klaasen 51; Senuran Muthusamy 3-55) beat Dolphins 230 in 48.1 overs (Sibonelo Makhanya 55, Vaughn van Jaarsveld 52; Junior Dala 5-32, Dean Elgar 4-37) by 70 runs