Mahima and Von Berg put Boland ahead

Siyabonga Mahima and Shaun von Berg dominated the post-lunch session to help Goldrush Boland reduce the Knights to 160/6 on day one of their CSA 4-Day Series match at Goldrush Boland Park on Thursday afternoon.

The spinners took three of the four wickets that fell post-lunch. At the break, Knights had Aaron Phangiso (18) and Ruan Cronje (13) at the crease.

Mahima made his presence felt when he dismissed Dian Forrester with his first delivery of the second session. The batting allrounder couldn't add much to his pre-lunch tally. He added a single run before he fell trying to launch Mahima out of the park. The ball flew to Pieter Malan stationed at deep square leg.

Following that wicket, Dikgale joined hands with Gihahn Cloete for a slow-paced 35-run fourth-wicket partnership. The runs came off 15.3 overs. Cloete's 28 runs came off 63 balls, and despite his innings ticking over at a slow pace, Dikgale was going at an even slower rate.

Dikgale's approach changed after he was joined by Patrick Botha in the middle. He engaged a third gear and started playing his shots. However, the opener played one too many shots and top-edged a delivery from Mahima. His 128-ball marathon innings ended after he had registered 40 runs. Botha followed Dikgale back to the pavilion four deliveries later. The allrounder fell to Von Berg's bowling.

Instead of being tied down by Boland's spinning duo of Mahima and Von Berg, Aaron Phangiso chose to fight fire with fire. He creamed three consecutive fours in an over as he tried to tilt the momentum in the visitors' favour. Phangiso and Cronje saw the visitors past 150 and to tea without further damage.

At the tea break, Mahima was Boland's leading wicket-taker with two wickets for 23 runs in 16 overs. Von Berg, Aya Gqamane, Keith Dudgeon, and Glenton Stuurman took a wicket each.

BOLAND: Clyde Fortuin (capt), Grant Roelofsen, Pieter Malan, Gavin Kaplan, Aviwe Mgijima, Nathan Engelbrecht (wk), Shaun von Berg, Keith Dudgeon, Aya Gqamane, Glenton Stuurman, Siya Mahima.

KNIGHTS:  Isaac Dikgale, Lesego Senokwane (capt), Garnett Tarr, Dian Forrester, Patrick Botha, Gihahn Cloete (wk), Ruan Cronje, Aaron Phangiso, Malusi Siboto, Johannes van Dyk, Sithembile Langa.