de Villiers enhances his claims

Wicketkeeper-batsman AB de Villiers scored his second hundred of the season as the Titans pushed towards a lead over the Warriors at Buffalo Park. With his name already being bandied about for higher honours, this innings will do him no harm at all.

After an early start to the second day, the Titans needed only four overs to take the final Warrior wickets, with Dale Steyn taking the first five-wicket haul of his career to reduce Warriors to 165.

De Villiers opened the Titans innings, and showed scant regard for the likes of Makhaya Ntini and Mornantau Hayward, scoring a chanceless 124 as wickets fell around him. At 91 for 3, Daryll Cullinan came to the crease and together the pair added 123 before de Villiers gave Brent Kops his third wicket. Cullinan showed that he is still the fluent strokemaker of old, while Albie Morkel once again slapped the ball to all parts of the ground.

Morkel tried once too often to clear the field, holing out for 64, and Cullinan chipped a catch to midwicket for an excellent 99. Robin Peterson cashed in with 5 for 118 as the Titans looked for extra bonus points, while Brent Kops walked off with a tidy 4 for 74 as the Titans ended on 353, a lead of 188.

The Warriors managed to face one over, without scoring, when light intervened.

Con de Lange top scored for Western Province Boland with 43, as they nursed their score along to 206 at Newlands. Deon Kruis, the Eagles seamer, took his second five-wicket haul of the season as he picked up three of the last five wickets to fall.

On a difficult pitch, the Eagles made a good start through a stand of 52 between Davey Jacobs and Gerhardus Liebenberg, but they then collapsed to 102 for 5 before Boeta Dippenaar and Nicky Boje got things back on track. They took the score to 202 for 5 with Dippenaar on 66 and Boje on 48 when stumps was called.

Andrew Hall put some spark into a rain-dampened match between the Dolphins and the Lions at Durban. After a morning where runs had been at a premium, Hall came out and showed that the pitch was conducive to scoring runs, stroking his way to 64 off 100 balls. HD Ackerman had scored a painfully slow 48 in 287 minutes while Neil McKenzie laboured his way to 100 in 387 minutes. Together they added 144 in 63.2 overs.

It was Dale Benkenstein who engineered the breakthrough as he took three wickets before rain mercifully forced the players off the field for 65 minutes. On resumption Hall and David Terbrugge put on 113 for the ninth wicket with Terbrugge passing his previous best of 35 before bad light ended play with the Lions on a tedious 361 for 8.