Man-of-the-match, Thami Tsolekile and Stephen Cook's third wicket partnership of 76 helped steer the Lions to victory by four wickets on the final day of their SuperSport series match at the Wanderers on Sunday.
Tsolekile was sent in at number three to increase the scoring rate after the early departure of Alviro Petersen.
Chasing a tricky target of 146 to win amid threatening rain including two interruptions, Tsolekile immediately declared his intentions. He looked streaky as he proceeded to play at almost every delivery and edged two boundaries through fine leg and third man respectively.
Together with Cook anchoring the Lions' chase, Tsolekile soon found his timing and was part of a fiery battle with Dolphins paceman Quinton Friend.
Friend dispatched a number of short pitched deliveries at Tsolekile who countered with the shot of the innings straight back past the bowler to shift the momentum towards the Lions.
Friend finally dismissed Tsolekile for 47 after tea and a 40 minute rain delay but, by then, the Lions needed little over 50 runs to win the match.
The Lions clearly concerned about the weather, again sent in a lower order batsman to keep the scoring rate up. Robert Frylinck was given the pinch-hitting task but could only contribute a single run before he was out to the bowling of Friend.
The Lions stumbled to victory with Zander De Bruyn and Johanthan Vandiar left with the job of scoring the winning runs.
Earlier, Tsolekile became the South African first-class record holder for most dismissals in a match when he caught Friend off the bowling of De Bruyn. It was his sixth dismissal of the innings, matching his six dismissals from the first innings. He moved ahead of Ian Healy and Jack Russel who were the previous joint record holders with 11 dismissals in a South African first-class match.
The Lions bowlers struggled to get rid of the Dolphins' lower order with Kyle Abbott and Friend providing strong resistance.
The pair, who came together in the evening of the third day's play, lasted for over an hour in the morning session amid the overcast conditions and brief rain interruption.
By the time the visitors were all out they had accumulated a lead of 145 runs. – Sapa