A third-wicket partnership of 127 between Jon-Jon Smuts and Ashwell Prince enabled the Warriors to reach 225/3 at stumps on the third day of their match against the Highveld Lions at the Wanderers on Saturday.
The partnership was scored off 212 balls, which included 16 fours and a massive six launched over mid-wicket.
A slight aberration was the undoing of Prince Ä he misread a ball from leggie Eddie Leie and got a leading edge to Neil McKenzie in the covers.
With shadows creeping over the Bullring, the umpires called time with Smuts on 103 and Arno Jacobs on 13.
The visitors needed another 58 runs to make their hosts bat again.
The Warriors' second spell at the crease, after being asked to follow-on, got off to an inauspicious start.
Seamer Cliffe Deacon trapped opener Bevan Bennett plumb in front with the third ball of the first over.
The recovery was instigated by Smuts and Colin Ingram, putting on 84 for the second wicket, and carried on by Smuts and Prince.
Earlier, the visitors started the day at 115/5 with Prince on 54 and Athenkosi Dyili on five, but the follow-on target of 362 was still far out of reach.
Both players looked to be comfortable rotating the strike and treating every ball on its merits.
Dyili, however, tried to cut a Pumi Matshikwe delivery, only to find the waiting hands of Jonathan Vandiar at backward point. Together with Prince, they added 63 for the sixth wicket.
Prince fell two overs later, giving Zander de Bruyn the easiest of caught-and-bowled chances.
Stephen Cook was the next to get into the act, catching a full-blooded pull from Simon Harmer at short leg, which hit him full on the knee, though Cook somehow managed to hold onto it.
Harmer's dismissal signalled the end as the last three wickets fell for nine runs, and with the Warriors out for 228, Lions captain Alviro Petersen had no compunction in enforcing the follow-on.
Meanwhile, in Cape Town, the Dolphins started the day at 131/4, still 206 runs adrift of the Cobras' first-innings score of 337.
Loots Bosman was removed early, however, when he was bowled by Rory Kleinveldt in the third over of the day.
Imran Khan and Daryn Smit set about repairing the damage, compiling a fifth-wicket partnership of 117.
It was not an innings for the purists, though, and Khan's 120 came off 347 balls while Smit's 49 required 210 deliveries.
The pair, however, had taken the score along to 258/5, with the visitors trailing by 79 runs.
And that was the way it had to stay as inclement conditions brought the players off the park with 27.5 overs still to be completed. – Sapa