Koenig's ton guides Strikers to Victory.

JOHANNESBURG (October 13) - A masterful century from Sven Koenig guided the Highveld Strikers to a six-run victory over Border in their Standard Bank Cup limited overs match at the Wanderers on Friday evening.

With regular opener Andrew Hall doing duty for South Africa in the ICC Knockout tournament in Kenya, Koenig stepped into the breach and engineered a dramatic victory over the same side they beat in last season's final of the Supersport Series at this same ground.

Batting with remarkable confidence so early in the domestic season, Koenig hit six fours on his way to 109 runs off only 118 balls as his side climbed to a total of 229.

Border skipper Pieter Strydom led from the front with his superb 89 not out, and along with Steven Pope's 63 helped steer the side to a credible 223 for the loss of seven wickets as their alloted 45 overs caught up with them following a pedestrian start by the visitors.

Strikers captain Clive Eksteen won the toss and elected to bat first.

Koenig, who walked off with the man of the match award, stood out head and shoulders above a Strikers top order that struggled to stay the pace with him.

Adam Bacher departed for a mere 10 runs, and Zander de Bruyn also offered little in the way of resistance with his six runs.

Daryll Cullinan also failed to deliver the kind of performance he was looking for to remind the national selectors that he is still a force to be reckoned with in the limited overs game. Cullinan seemed to be well on his way to doing just that as he raced to 39 off 36 balls, including six fours and two sixes. But the bowling of Steven Pope put a premature end to his performance.

Ottis Gibson added a useful 30 runs, along with his figures of 3-44, before the collapse of the Strikers' tail. The home side went on to lose five wickets for only 24 runs.

Drakes was the predictable leader of the visitors' bowling attack, taking two wickets, of which Koening was one, for 31 runs in his nine-over spell.