Johannesburg - Jacques Rudolph of the Nashua Titans and Dale Deeb of the bizhub Highveld Lions scored centuries of contrasting importance on the second day of SuperSport Series action on Friday.

For Rudolph it was the 44th time he had reached three figures in first-class cricket (118 off 191 balls with 18 fours) and was once again evidence that he is knocking hard on the door for a return to the Proteas Castle Lager Test match squad.

Although he is currently opening the batting for the Titans the left-hander is capable of batting anywhere in the top six and, with AB de Villiers’ participation in the Test series against Australia a matter of some doubt, Rudolph could well be lined up for a middle-order position.

Deeb made his maiden first-class century, going past 50 for only the second time in his career. He finished unbeaten on 101 (165 balls, 16 fours) and crucially shared a partnership of 128 for the ninth wicket with Ethan O’Reilly. The Chevrolet Knights must have fancied their chances of getting the Lions out for around 350 runs but they were left facing a target of more than 450 when the Lions declared after Deeb had reached three figures.

This was only the second instance since the start of the franchise era that a No. 9 batsman had made a century, the previous one (102 not out) being recorded by Lance Klusener for the Sunfoil Dolphins against the Chevrolet Warriors at Sahara Stadium Kingsmead in the 2005/06 season so it puts Deeb in very good company indeed.

Just how valuable Deeb’s innings had been became evident when the Lions seamer, Pumelela Matshikwe, returned his best ever franchise figures of 4/41 in 11 overs to rock the Knights at 95/5.

The Knights finished the day at 161/5 and have a hard third day ahead of them with a current first innings deficit of 294 runs.

Obus Pienaar (51 not out off 63 balls with 10 fours) has so far led a defiant counter-attack in partnership with Ryan McLaren and the pair have added 66 for the sixth wicket.

Much will depend on this pair for the Knights to get close to the Lions total.

Rudolph’s century against the Dolphins at the Pietermaritzburg Oval made sure the Titans made a competitive reply to the home side’s effort of 243 on Thursday. However, they seemed to have lost much of the advantage when Rudolph’s dismissal saw three wickets fall for 9 runs with rookie Dane Paterson – the CSA Provincial three-day Cricket of the Year – taking two of them in the space of four balls.

At that stage the Titans were still 28 runs in arrears, and the Dolphins were well in the contest when the Titans lost their ninth wicket with a lead of just 41 runs.

But there was a complete turn-around as Heino Kuhn (30 not out at the fall of the ninth wicket) found an unexpected partner in Ethy Mbhalati. By the close the pair had added an unbeaten 56 (in 16 overs) for the last wicket, giving the Titans a much more substantial lead of 97 runs.

Kuhn finished the day unbeaten on 75 (123 balls, 6 fours). Not only did this give his confidence a good boost ahead of the two T20 International matches against Australia in which he will deputise for AB de Villiers behind the stumps but it enabled the Titans to bat out their full 100 batting bonus points overs.