DAY 1: Slow and steady for Lions at lunch on day one against Western Province

The DP World Lions were making steady progress towards a big first innings total as they reached tea on day one of their CSA 4-Day Series match against the World Sports Betting Western Province on 155/2 at DP World Wanderers in Johannesburg on Thursday.

Captain Dominic Hendricks, on 58 off 1182 balls, and Zubayr Hamza, on 21 off 31 (3x4; 1x6) will resume in the days final session looking to set them up for a strong score.

It was an incredibly slow morning session for the Lions as they reached lunch on 60/1, but in the early afternoon session they picked things up a bit as Hendricks and Muhammad Manack, 64 off 142, extended their second wicket partnership to 108-runs.

Both batters reached their half centuries, before Manack edged spinner Kyle Simmonds to keeper Daniel Smith, leaving them on 111/2, with Hamza then joining Hendricks as they eased their side to tea.

In the morning session the Lions won the toss and chose to bat first, but lost opener Joshua Richards for a nine ball duck in the second over of the day, after he edged debutant Jody Lawrence to Eddie Moore at third slip, with the score 3/1.

But that brought Manack in to join Hendricks and they played extremely carefully against some good bowling from Province, leaving the good balls and putting away the bad ones, as they took their side to the break in a decent position.

DP WORLD LIONS: Joshua Richards, Dominic Hendricks (capt), Muhammad Manack, Zubayr Hamza, Khaya Fakude, Connor Esterhuizen (wk), Delano Potgieter, Bjorn Fortuin, Codi Yusuf, Tshepo Moreki, Lutho Sipamla

WORLD SPORTS BETTING WESTERN PROVINCE: Edward Moore, Jonothan Bird, Yaseen Vallie, Daniel Smith, Bongi Mfunelwa, George Linde (capt), Mihlali Mpongwana, Onke Nyaku, Kyle Simmonds, Mthiwekhaya Nabe, Jody Lawrence