DAY 1: Malan half-century helps Dragons find footing

Janneman Malan scored a patient half-century that helped the Renault Potchefstroom North West Dragons reach 226-3 at stumps on day one of their CSA 4-Day Series match against the DP World Lions at the JB Marks Oval in Potchefstroom on Thursday.

Play was stopped early due to bad light.

Earlier in the day, the Dragons won the toss and elected to bat first.

They navigated a tricky Lions bowling attack to finish the day with minimal damage.

They had Raynard van Tonder (48*) and Wihan Lubbe (45*) at the crease at the close of play.

Malan adopted a more measured approach in his innings. The 28-year-old patiently constructed his 16th first-class half-century, facing 153 deliveries to get there.

His knock helped the home team gain control of the match in the first two sessions of the day.

Before lunch, Malan shared a 53-run opening stand with Matthew Kleinveldt. It was succeeded by a 67-run second-wicket partnership between Malan and Lesiba Ngoepe.

The Dragons found themselves in a spot of bother after they lost Malan and Ngoepe within 7.4 overs of each other, for 21 runs.

The hosts were brought back on track by Van Tonder and Lubbe. Last week, the middle-order batters showed a great understanding of each other as they constructed an unbroken 158-run partnership against the Knights.

The Dragons needed them to return another performance like that. They did not disappoint.

Van Tonder and Lubbe shared an unbroken 85-run fourth-wicket partnership that saw the home side to stumps without further damage to the wickets column.

Tshepo Moreki was the pick of the bowlers for the Lions.

The pacer took two wickets for 23 runs in 11 overs. Codi Yusuf was the other wicket-taker with a single wicket for 39 runs in 10 overs.

DRAGONS: Janneman Malan, Matthew Kleinveldt, Lesiba Ngoepe, Raynard van Tonder, Wihan Lubbe (capt), Ruan de Swardt, Taheer Isaacs (wk), Migael Pretorius, Achille Cloete, Odirile Modimokoane, Jaydon Brooker.

DP WORLD LIONS: Joshua Richards, Dominic Hendricks (capt), Zubayr Hamza, Wiaan Mulder, Khaya Fakude, Connor Esterhuizen (wk), Delano Potgieter, Bjorn Fortuin, Codi Yusuf, Tshepo Moreki, Junaid Dawood.