Second bonus-point win for Lions

Lions overcame a minor mid-innings scare in their chase against Warriors in Port Elizabeth to notch up their second bonus-point win in the Momentum One Day Cup. Chasing a small target of 111, Lions were comfortably placed at 61 for 1. But Wayne Parnell and Basheeru-Deen Walters combined to take three wickets in nine balls to give Warriors hope of a comeback. Neil McKenzie and Zander de Bruyn, however, added 52 runs to complete the chase in the 27th over.

Warriors, who had chosen to bat, lost three early wickets with only 21 runs on the board and never recovered. Ashwell Prince, Davy Jacobs and Wayne Parnell resisted for brief periods, but stifling spells by Aaron Phangiso, Hardus Viljoen and Chris Morris helped Lions end the innings in the 36th over. Viljoen followed up his 6 for 19 in the previous game with a four-wicket haul while Phangiso took three in his nine overs that went for only 16 runs.

Jacobs, the Warriors captain, blamed the side's batting for the defeat. "We batted really badly, and we didn't realise early enough that 140 on that pitch would have been competitive," he said. "Having said that, I thought if we had got one more wicket, we had a chance to come back."

Lions' captain Stephen Cook was pleased with the performance that placed them comfortably at the top of the table. "All the bowlers did really well again, and long may it continue," Cook said. "It wasn't an easy wicket, and it was very nice to have Neil [McKenzie] and Zander [de Bruyn] to see us through that little flutter in the middle of the innings."

Titans 282 for 6 (Davids 92, Hendricks 3-68) beat Cobras 277 for 6 (Puttick 106, Vilas 62, van der Merwe 2-45) by four wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Man-of-the-Match Henry Davids missed out on a century but his quick 92 helped Titans get the first points of their Momentum One Day Cup campaign, against Cobras in Benoni. Davids was involved in two strong partnerships at the top of the order that kept Titans abreast with the required rate during their chase of 278.

Davids and Heino Kuhn, who made a run-a-ball 41, played out the first five overs watchfully but changed gears in the sixth as they took 20 runs off Beuran Hendricks. They brought up the century stand in the 14th over and set up an ideal base for the rest. Kuhn was out in the next over but Davids formed another useful 65-run alliance with Mangaliso Mosehle to keep the chase on track. Mosehle got bogged down for a while, scoring 10 off his first 24 balls, but made up later with four sixes to score 43 off 46 balls. Soon after Mosehle's departure, there was a brief stutter as Davids was run out three balls after Martin van Jaarsveld's wicket in the 35th over with 84 runs still required off 18 overs. However, a quick half-century stand between David Wiese (40 off 36 balls) and Farhaan Behardien (27 off 41 balls) brought Titans close to their first win. Both were out in the 44th over but by then the job was almost done.

Cobras, who had chosen to bat, looked good for much more than what they eventually got. At 211 for 3 after 40 overs, with centurion Andrew Puttick still at the crease, Titans were in danger of conceding more than 300 for the second game in a row. But timely wickets and some tight bowling towards the end helped them keep Cobras to 278 before their batsmen helped ease the memory of the humiliating collapse in their previous match.