A brilliant knock by Mitchell van Buuren takes Lions home against the Knights

Cape Town — The Knights and Lions went through the motions in the afternoon game at St George's Park.

Both teams are out of the running for the playoffs and the lack of incentive seemingly played out in their performance in this lacklustre encounter.

Veteran former Proteas batter Farhaan Behardien's 35 not out ensured the Knights managed to work their way up to 127/8.

Tshepo Ntuli (3/21) and Malusi Siboto (3/18) were the chief wicket-takers for the Lions.

"I tried to keep it very simple after sitting out a few games. I just wanted to stick to the basics. That was very important," Ntuli said.

The Lions' successful reply was masterminded by Mitchell van Buuren's career-best 67 not out to take his team home by five wickets, although it was not enough to keep the defending champions in the competition.

"It was very challenging out there today. As you saw earlier both games were low scoring. The key was to take the game as deep as possible especially when Reeza (Hendricks) went out. That was the key to have an in-batter at the crease to take the game home," Van Buuren said.

@ZaahierAdams

IOL Sport