A five-star performance from leg-spinner, Eddie Leie and a century from Alviro Petersen (134) propelled the Highveld Lions to a comprehensive 184-run win over the VKB Knights at Senwes Park last Sunday.

Leie achieved his best bowling figures (5/30) as he bamboozled the Knights batsmen who seemed to be batting on a different pitch to the home team. The Lions batted first and amassed a massive 317/6, thanks to Petersen’s 134, McKenzie’s 56 and a quick fire 50 from Dwaine Pretorius.

The runs kept on flowing as the Lions kept building good partnerships in the middle. The Knight’s attack of Shadley van Schalkwyk, Corné Dry and Malusi Siboto lacked the firepower as Petersen hit shots to all corners of the ground.

The Potchefstroom crowd cheered every run as they witnessed some great strokeplay from the Protea batsman. The Knights were relieved when they got off the park at lunch time and had to come out guns blazing in their innings to give themselves any hope of victory.

This was not to be the case as they ran out of ammo early on with Lonwabo Tsotsobe picking up the early wicket of Rudi Second for 7. The only form of resistance came in the form of Diego Rosier and Reeza Hendricks. Both played a number of good shots but were always up against the run rate.

Rosier tried to up the ante, but he missed a huge slog against Leie that gave wicketkeeper,  Thami Tsolekile, an easy stumping. The Knights batting then fell apart as regular wickets gave the Lions a much-needed victory and a massive confidence boost for the rest of the season.