It was a sunny day at Newlands for the opening game of the campaign between WSB Western Province and DP World Lions. The Lions won the toss and decided to have a bat.

Western Province started well by getting a wicket in the 2nd over with Dane Patterson nicking off Wandile Makwetu.

Two quick wickets fell during the 12th and 14th overs as the Lions looked like they were starting to pick up momentum. Reeza Hendricks’ important wicket fell during this period.

At the halfway mark the Lions were 121/3.

Mitchell van Buuren and Zubayr Hamza built a steady partnership. Van Buuren and Hamza ended up being the standout batsmen of the Lions innings with Hamza finishing on 56 (79) and Van Buuren 48 (58).

Kyle Simmonds was the standout bowler for Western Province finishing with 3-40 after his 10 overs. The other wicket-takers were Dane Paterson (2-44), Wesley Bedja (1-57) and Mthiwekhaya Nabe (1-56).

After 50 overs, the Lions finished on 259/7.

The Lion’s bowling attack also got off to a quick start with the wicket of Daniel Smith falling in the second over a poor shot was misstimed and went straight to Tshepo Moreki at mid-on.

At the halfway mark Western Province was 104/4.

Western Province put up a good fight with impressive batting performances from Eddie Moore who scored 66(94) and George Linde 55(58)

However, the Lion’s bowling attack was simply just too strong with the highlight player of the innings being Lutho Sipamla who took 4-43. The other wicket-takers were Bjorn Fourtuin 2-40 Codi Yusuf 1-31 and Tshepo Moreki 2-40.

Meanwhile, at JB Marks Oval, the Knights batted first and were restricted to 257 all out. Jacques Snyman was their key batter, blazing 85 off 77 balls (5 fours, 3 sixes).

Patrick Botha managed 40 and Dominic Hendricks struck 29 with Ruan de Swardt (3/44), Kerwin Mungroo (2/35) and Matthew Kleinveldt (2/39) all amongst the wickets.

Malan and Kleinveldt (42) then gave their side a good start to the chase, and even though the home side lost wickets regularly, they kept up with the rate thanks to the former holding up one end.

He was eventually the last player to fall with the total on 220, but by that time there had been handy contributions from Rubin Hermann (30), captain Lesiba Ngoepe (24) and Tahir Isaacs (21).

De Swardt (19*) and Migael Pretorius (23*) then ended the game in a hurry with the Dragons sealing victory with 3.1 overs to spare.