Shane Burger helped the Lions amass 316/8 on day one of their four-day SuperSport Series match against the Warriors at the Wanderers on Thursday.
The series resumed after a two-month break, with the Lions, positioned in third place on the table, having an outside chance of winning the series, with one more match to play.
Both sides were missing key players and fielded youngster that being groomed for the future.
After winning the toss the visitors opted to bowl first – a decision which paid off early when the Lions lost the wicket of Stephen Cook (3), caught at slip by Craig Thyssen off Andrew Birch, with just five runs on the board.
Dominic Hendricks (24), making his debut for the Lions, was the next wicket to fall, giving Lyall Meyer his first of five wickets, when the left-hander was caught at point by Birch.
Two balls later, with no addition to the score, the Lions found themselves at 47/3 when Jean Symes went for a duck. He skied a ball behind him and Justin Kreusch, fielding at slip, ran back to take the catch, giving Meyer his second wicket.
Temba Bavuma and Zander de Bruyn put on 72 runs for the fourth wicket before Bavuma (40) was caught behind by Arno Jacobs as Reece Williams bagged his first wicket.
For the second time in the match, Meyer took two wickets in two balls, dismissing the other debutant, Brett Pelser (7), caught at slip, followed by Quinton de Kock, caught behind for a duck.
Burger, returning to the franchise team after captaining the amateur side for several seasons, shared an 86-run, seventh-wicket stand with De Bruyn (81), until the latter had his middle stump removed by Williams.
Meyer took his fourth five-wicket haul of his career when Jon-Jon Smuts caught Dale Deeb in the slips.
Burger smashed a four to the mid-wicket boundary to bring up his hundred after batting for just over three hours, having faced 151 balls, hitting 13 fours.
At stumps, Burger was unbeaten on 108 and Ethan O’ Reilly on 24 as the pair had added 73 runs together to the total. – Meyer finished with figures of 5/70 while Williams took 2/67. - Sapa