Lions cricket team target domestic clean sweep after stunning season

The Lions will be targeting a domestic clean sweep next season, after they concluded their current campaign with their second piece of silverware after beating the Dolphins in the CSA T20 final at the Wanderers on Sunday.

The Lions had already picked up the CSA Four Day series trophy when they triumphed over Western Province last month, and followed that up with a superb T20 tournament to deservedly clinch the title.

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Western Province won the CSA One Day Cup late last year, with that the only piece of local silverware the Lions were unable to claim this season, and captain Bjorn Fortuin admitted that they didn’t want to jinx going for all three next season.

“I am incredibly proud of this team. It has been a long season. We are thrilled that different guys have stood up at different times, which shows that the development of the players is going well, and to finish with two trophies is something special,” said Fortuin.

“We are lucky that we have quite a few quality players in the squad, so we are able to rotate quite a lot. The guys that then come in are very motivated to try stake a claim to start, and that makes for a competitive group.

Jinx it

“I won’t jinx it by saying we will go for three next season. But we are really happy to end with two. Hopefully we can build on this, develop more young players and have another good season next season.”

The Lions are fully deserved T20 champs after they cruised through the pool stage, finishing top of the log with 10 wins from 14 games and then dominated the knockouts, thumping the Titans by eight wickets and comfortably beating the Dolphins by seven wickets.

Their players also shone, with Ryan Rickelton and Reeza Hendricks finishing as the second and third highest run scorers in the competition, while Nqaba Peter and Fortuin finished as the third and fourth highest wicket takers.

Despite the disappointment of falling at the final hurdle, Dolphins captain Prenelan Subrayen admitted that they were pleased to have had a decent season.

“I think there were a few areas we fell short in. But all in all I think we had a pretty good campaign and we can be proud of ourselves for the progress we made over the season. I think the smaller margins were won by the Lions and that cost us in the end,” said Subrayen.